Sunday June 22, 2008 matinee - Having enjoyed an excerpt from his work at LaMama earlier this Spring, I was looking forward to this opportunity to see the Christopher Caines Dance Company again. This afternoon they performed SPIRITS at the Jazz at Lincoln Center space at Columbus Circle. In the Andrew Clearfield photo, dancers Jackie McConnell and Andrew Garfield. The title SPIRITS made me think this might be about ghosts or lost souls but: No... it's about libations! Beverages are cleverly linked to the musical selections of each section: SLIVOVICE (Martinu), WATER OF LIFE (Gaelic folk melodies), COGNAC (Faure), ABSINTHE (Satie), WATER & SALT (Meredith Monk) and a joyous CHAMPAGNE finale (music by Nicholas Stoia commissioned by the Company).
Michelle Vargo (photo: Chris Woltmann) in the WATER OF LIFE segment. The Caines style is firmly rooted in classical ballet technique and most of the girls danced on pointe. The live music was a special attraction of the performance. Mr. Caines himself sang the Gaelic folk tunes for WATER OF LIFE. Mezzo-soprano Silvie Jensen has an appealingly individual timbre that made her Faure songs in COGNAC the musical highpoint if the afternoon. Among the dancers I was very impressed again with the four I saw at LaMama: Jacqueline McConnell, Lauren Engelman, Andrew Griffin and Edgar Peterson; Ms. Vargo is a distinctive presence and in ABSINTHE Jamy Hsu and Justin Wingenroth provided a comic interlude as they stopped emphatically to catch their breath.
The performance unfortunately took place in an unsuitable venue which hampered the dancers by lack of space and of wing areas for entries and exits. The audience sat at tables cabaret-style at one end of the studio space from which vantage point the steps and patterns (which looked so nice from the steep rake of the LaMama seating) sometimes lost effectiveness. Lighting, which was also lovely at LaMama, was lacking here. I'm sure that cost constraints dictated the confinements and I am hoping some benevolent angel will come along and provide the Company with the funding needed to appear in a more congenial setting when I see them again. The dancers carried on sportingly, undeterred by limitations.
But such concerns vanished during the really enjoyable CHAMPAGNE finale of the afternoon; to the lively Prelude and Waltz by Nicholas Stoia Mr. Caines devised an expansive dance for six couples which mixed elements of balletic lifts and patterns with a ballroom-dance feeling. Earlier in the production some of the female costuming was unflattering but here they were beautifully gowned in the exact shade of the Veuve Clicquot label and the men wore tuxedos with cumberbunds and bow-ties of the same hue. I will be looking forward to future performances by this ambitious Company, hopefully in a setting where they will truly be able to shine.
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