Friday March 19, 2010 - Kokyat and I went to the Chelsea studio of Jennifer Muller/THE WORKS where the choreographer was presenting Choreography Exposed, one in a series of in-depth looks at her work. Tonight's subject was FLOWERS. Top photo: Elizabeth Disharoon.
In June 2009 I first encountered Jennifer Muller's/THE WORKS at the Joyce. Then in November we spent a wonderful evening at the Chelsea Art Museum watching an analysis and performance of Ms. Muller's BENCH, from which Kokyat produced some really fine images.
Inspired by the work of photographer Barbara Bordnick, FLOWERS is set to an original score by Lawrence Nachsin. Ms. Bordnick was among Jennifer's guests tonight (above). In staged performances of FLOWERS, images by Ms. Bordnick are projected on a scrim as the dancers perform.
I love listening to Jennifer Muller talk about dance; she doesn't take an intellectual or technical approach when she speaks but rather describes her sources of inspiration and the evolution of ideas into movement. She views dance, as I do, as an ancient common language - a language constantly changing and developing but deeply rooted in emotion.
In her series Choreography Exposed, Jennifer has the dancers demonstrate individual phrases and then shows how they are combined in an expressive whole. THE WORKS are a troupe of technically powerful and wonderfully distinctive dancers. Dancing full-out in their home studio, the room at times seemed almost unable to contain their energy.
FLOWERS is danced in five movements, each inspired by one of the five Chinese seasons and each season having its respective colour: Late Summer (yellow), Fall (white), Winter (black), Spring (green) and Summer (red). Lawrence Nachsin's score evolves accordingly from the starkness of Winter thru the enticements of Spring and the fiery heat of Summer. Above, Gen Hashimoto.
Seiko Fujita and Josiah Guitian (Fall)...
...and Elizabeth Disharoon (Winter).
Big lifts are a signature motif in FLOWERS. In the rather low-ceilinged studio, the men seemed to have an instinctive sense of the space and swept the girls on high with flair.
Above: Duane Gosa and Jen Peters.
Above: Abdul Latif.
Above: Pascal Rekoert.
Following the analysis of FLOWERS and a full run-thru of that work, two sections of BENCH were presented:
Jennifer introduces BENCH; Duane Gosa seated on the floor.
Following BENCH, the evening ended with a fast-paced excerpt from MOMENTUM in which the dancers showed terrific reserves of energy.
The dancers of Jennifer Muller/THE WORKS who performed tonight are: Susanna Bozzetti, Elizabeth Disharoon, Seiko Fujita, Katherine Hozler (apprentice), Jen Peters, Duane Gosa, Josiah Guitian, Gen Hashimoto, Abdul Latif and Pascal Rekoert. In a City full of spectacular dancers, Ms. Muller has selected some of the most inspired and inspiring; it was literally thrilling to watch them at close range.
In April, we are planning to visit Jennifer Muller's studio again to experience her creative process in a new work.
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