Thursday October 14, 2010 - TAKE Dance, a troupe of dancers led by Takehiro Ueyama, joined with the jazz composers of PULSE to produce a collaborative evening of live music and dance down at Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square. Kokyat and I are big fans of Takehiro and his dancers and we've kept tabs on them for several months now, including - most recently - a rehearsal for tonights's performance. Top photo: tonight's choreographers take a bow - Take Ueyama, Jill Echo, Julie Tice & Kile Hotchkiss. Photo by Kokyat.
The programme, entitled The Distance of the Moon, encompasses six different musical selections by each of the six PULSE composers as well as a percission improv by drummer Max Jaffe to which Marie Zvosec danced a solo choreographed by Take Ueyama but seemingly having an improvisational feel of its own. Take choreographed two other works, Jill Echo two, and Kile Hotchkiss and Julie Tice each presented one piece.
Take said: “A collaboration with contemporary artists in other genres is one of the major motivating factors in the creative process.” The live music injected a real vitality into the production which also benefited from superb lighting by Jason Jeunnette; the play of dancers' shadows on the floor and walls really intrigued Kokyat who was shooting from the mezzanine. And the spacious dancing area allowed the dancers to dance at full-tilt.
I'm not a fan of jazz per se - much of it seems like doodling and endless riffs to me - but what was played tonight was composed music with a jazzy flavour and a feel of contemporary chamber music. And the musicians were excellent. The six composers each had a different 'voice' to their music ranging from lyrical to sensuous to edgy to witty. The choreographers were thus able to develop dances with a wide range of emotional colours from the mystical and quasi-romantic duet that Take created for the opening DISTANCE OF THE MOON to his quirky all-male DANCE BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON; Jill Echo created an ethereal, ritualistic work for five women entitled EVENING SONG and then veered in a totally different direction with her amusing bar-room vignette called MOONSHINE. Julie Tice found beautifully lyrical elements of repose and restlessness in LONG NIGHT MOON while Kile Hotchkiss, blessed with my favorite score of the evening, set five of his colleagues on athletic, vibrant traversals of the polished surface in PENUMBRA.
One could hardly ask for a better start than Take's ravishing duet THE DISTANCE OF THE MOON to a score by Joseph C Phillips, Jr. The two dancers, Nana Tsuda Misko and John Eirich depict a love affair between the Moon and the Earth, moving in close proximity and then spinning apart. Nana and John are a beautifully matched pair of dancers and their quiety radiant performance had the feel of an intimate operatic love duet.
Kile Hotchkiss in PENUMBRA knew how to show his fellow dancers to their best advantage. Set to a score by Darcy James Argue, the work begins with the dancers in a line-up in the pallid light of the moon. Then they split off and danced solo, duet and trio passages - each displaying their own particular energy. New to the Company, the blonde Clinton Edward Martin is slim and agile. Elise Drew's passionate dancing always draws the eye, and Gina Ianni excelled here with her sense of abandon and great freedom of movement. The tall couple Kristen Arnold and Jake Warren move with imposing amplitude. Kile took all these elements and, buoyed by Mr. Argue's dynamic and vari-textured score, made the most of his first major chorographic opportunity.
Jill Echo's EVENING SONG depicts the Moon’s shimmering beauty and its ability to inspire the subconscious. Set to music by Japanese composer Yumiko Sunami, the piece depicts the Moon’s influence on a quintet of women moving thru its four phases – New Moon, Ascending Moon, Full Moon, and Descending Moon. Jill gave the five dancers - Kristen Arnold, Elise Drew, Gina Ianni, Nana Tsuda Misko and Marie Zvosec - airy, poetic moves with patterns of evocative port de bras and an overall feeling of mystery and dreaminess. Momentary flashes of animation indicate the influence of the lunar changes on the female spirit. The five girls danced with innate grace and expressiveness while a subtly sensuous element was also in play.
By way of contrast, Take's AND DANCE BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON (music by Joshua Shneider) commenced with a trio of guys wandering the lunar surface in white boxers and t-shirts. Is the moon made of cheese? They sampled it and found it tasty. They continue to explore, shuffling around in an odd unison gait that drew chuckles from the audience - especially as the three (Kile Hotchkiss, Clinton Edward Martin - a man who can 'tunnel' convincingly - and John Eirich) maintained deadpan expressions throughout.
The three boys' lunar adventure is interrupted by the Man in the Moon - a masked Jake Warren, above, who enters on a skateboard and throws them into a panic. Finally two of the 'lunatic' boys amble off, leaving the third who lingers too long and is carried off by the ominous skate-boarding demi-god.
Julie Tice, a Paul Taylor alumna, gives us LUNAR CYCLES in a musical setting by composer/trombonist JC Sanford. Above: Kristen Arnold and Jake Warren is a duet passage from the new work. Evoking the Moon’s transformations and how they affect people’s personalities and inter-relationships, Julie made fine use of the space...
...with her dancers alternating ecstatic awakenings with periods of repose. The piece has a poetic resonance and the music's pacing and colours are clearly visualized in Julie's chorography. I especially liked the ending with the gorgeous Elise Drew having the last phrase as night finally fell.
The solo Take made for Marie Zvosec, entitled simply MOONLIGHT, seems to have been a late addition to the programme but it was also a welcome one, showing the dancer in flowing motions of the arms and torso while remaining stationary for much of the time. Percussionist Max Jaffe's solo improvisation worked well for Marie: their collaboration was subtle and particulary intimate as Marie stood very close to the spectators.
In Jill Echo's MOONSHINE, Jake Warren was the toweringly athletic bartender who serves drinks to three women and two men in his small saloon. There are disputes, flirtations and gossip going on until...
...Jake meets Mariko Kurihara, a petite seductress who entices him onto the dance floor.
In this amusing little mini-drama, passages of ballroom dance (Elise Drew and John Eirich, above) are part of the scenario. Jamie Begian's music gave Jill a broad canvas on which to paint the moves and the little personal mini-dramas of the barflys. Oddly, at the rehearsal we recently saw, I thought MOONSHINE was just a bit of fluff but seeing it staged, lit and with the dancers getting into their characters, I really liked it.
The combined efforts of all the participating artists made the progarmme a big success: the full house included a stellar contingent from Take's alma mater The Paul Taylor Dance Company, among them our beautiful friends Amy Young and Francisco Graciano as well as Taylor legends Karla Wolfangle and Lisa Viola. I so wanted to meet Michael Trusnovec, one of my idols, but I was too shy. Camaraderie and high spirits reigned as the evening turned into an impromptu party: no one wanted to leave, and Kokyat kept pulling out his Leica for "one last shot".
This kind of collaboration takes a lot of imagination, planning and sheer hard work...and money! Everyone involved gave it their all and it was gratifying to hear the audience going wild at the end of the evening as the dancers, musicians, composers and choreographers stepped forward in turn. For all the creative powers in play, in the end it's the dancers who make it happen. TAKE Dance is a beautiful Company.
All photos by Kokyat. Click each image to enlarge.
I only went to Judson Hall once while I lived in New York but recall it as a beautiful place. The photos from the performance are wonderful.
Posted by: Marguerite Fontana | October 15, 2010 at 02:50 PM
Thank you for coming to our performances and for reviewing it. As the leader of Pulse and the one who, along with Take, spearheaded the development of the project, it was a pleasure to see how wonderfully The Distance of the Moon came to fruition and what a success it was with dancers, musicians, composers, choreographers, and the audience. From an initial idea, the project bloomed into a true and organic collaboration between all involved and one we hope to do again in the future.
Joe Phillips
http://www.numinousmusic.com
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Posted by: Numinous | October 16, 2010 at 10:00 AM