Friday December 18, 2009 - After watching Nicholas Andre Dance in rehearsal earlier in the week I went to their performance at Joyce SoHo (the second of four) with Avi on Friday evening. The programme offered six fairly short works, each with its individual look and feel, as well as a nice mix of music. Nick Ross, the choreographer and director, gives his excellent dancers a real workout with his athletic style. But there are also sustained, lyrical passages and the dancers are thoroughly at ease whether flying about or taking a more meditative stance. Above: PASSAGE/photo by Kokyat. Click on the images to enlarge.
In WIRED - one of his latest works, just premiered - Nick Ross sets five of his dancers in non-stop motion. Clad in handsome green-on-black unitards, the dancers are propelled by a Steve Reich score. WIRED opens with a solo by Tommy Scrivens, the former Parsons Dancer, who strolls into the space before erupting in dynamic moves. Tommy's dancing was a highlight of each piece in which he appeared tonight - his presence always has a feeling of caged energy and when it bursts forth: watch out. At one point he executed an unbelievable no-hands flip which was as startling as it was brilliant.
Kristy Engel (above), Katlyn Baskin-Waldo, Trista Jennings and Christopher Ralph kept pace with Tommy as WIRED surged forward. A visual and musical treat, it is an engaging opener and swept by all too quickly.
UNDERCURRENT was my favorite work on the programme; on Wednesday Kokyat and I saw it in rehearsal and were taken in by the feeling of a dreamlike rite being performed. For this work, dancer Kristy Engel designed the costumes, showing her colleagues in slitted, billowy long red trousers, the men bare-chested. They seem like priests and priestesses of some ancient sect moving in almost stylized patterns. At times two duets are performed simultaneously. Arvo Part's familar 'Speigel im spiegel' makes UNDERCURRENT seem suspended in time. Tonight the excellent dancers - Ms. Engel, Trista Jennings, Christopher Ralph and Tommy Scrivens - danced with calm authority. (Since we saw a different cast at the rehearsal, I've created a separate gallery of Kokyat's photos from this work).
Philip Glass provides the music for another new work, ELEGY, an ensemble piece beautifully lit by Burke Wilmore in which the seven dancers (four women and three men) move to the composer's insistent rhythmic figures.
Above, in ELEGY: Aaron Walter, Christopher Ralph and Tommy Scrivens. In this piece and in PASSAGE which opened the second half of the performance we are able to connect with the dancers as individual personalities while observing them as a group.
PASSAGE has a folk-inspired feel to it: the music (Sigur Ros), the costumes (designed by the choreographer) and the steps seem to evoke a gathering of country-folk at an outdoor celebration. For this work the dancers were joined by Juan Rodriguez, a guest from Complexions.
PASSAGE features pairings which materialize...
...and then mix back into the ensemble of a community rejoicing.
A male quartet impart a feeling of mystery to THE LAST MAN; this seemingly simple work (rehearsal photo above) reveals more layers the more you see it. Clint Mansell provides the music and the simple costumes are by Christina Giannini. The four men - Jeremy Nedd, Tommy Scrivens, Aaron Walter and Christopher Ralph - seems to be appraising one another, sizing each other up. Bursts of energy alternate with simple pacing movements; tensions seem just below the surface but while there are no confrontations neither can the men truly connect on an emotional level. One by one they withdraw from the field.
For UNTIL BLUE, the black curtains at the rear of the playing area open and we are transported to a clear summer afternoon - a welcome illusion on this incredibly frigid night - where six dancers swirl and leap with unstinting power and beauty to express the sheer joy of the human body in motion. Above, Kristy Engel and Aaron Walter. The Vitamin Quartet's music is the perfect frame for this work and provided an uplifting finale to the evening.
From UNTIL BLUE: Aaron Walter and Kristy Engel...
...Tommy Scrivens, foreground, with Kristy Engel.
It was fun catching up with Avi, who will soon be working with some of the dance world's brightest stars, and to run into Greg Dolbashian, and to see a couple of dancers from Parsons Dance out supporting Tommy. All who ventured out on this arctic night were rewarded by Nick's choice of music and most especially by his excellent dancers.
All Kokyat's photos are from the rehearsal of 12/16/09. Click on the images to enhance the view.
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