Saturday June 11, 2011 evening - After spending the afternoon at The Joyce, Kokyat and I walked uptown along the Hudson River on a cool evening to see Amy Marshall Dance Company on their final night at the Ailey Citigroup Theater. We had been to the dress rehearsal earlier in the week where Kokyat took the pictures you see here. Above, the Company in Amy's newest work DVIJA.
Amy Marshall's danceworks demand great strength and stamina from her dancers, who need to have great stores of energy to call upon. It's also a plus that they are all so attractive and each one is highly individualized in face, figure and personal style.
It's unusual to see a dance programme in which three of the four works are by the same composer. Kevin Keller provided the score for the 2006 UNHARVESTED (revived this season) as well as the recent RIDING THE PURPLE TWILIGHT and the newest work, DVIJA. In a solo, ARIA, Amy Marshall dances to a lamenting vocalise composed by Patricia Dallio and sung by Susan Belling.
ARIA was danced with soulful intensity by Amy Marshall (above). A solitary woman slowly worn down by emotional turmoil, she moved in the gold-lighted space with a kind of halting urgency, perhaps seeking an escape but finding none. For this work, Amy wears a striking black dress created by Norma Kamali who also designed the costumes for the concluding DVIJA.
In UNHARVESTED, the dancers swirl off and on is non-stop lifts and partnered sequences. Kelly McCormick Bangs, above, is a lyrical dancer who in this work takes on an edgier feeling. Her dancing both here and in DVIJA was especially striking.
Zac Hammer with Kimberly Lyons and Louis Acquisto with Alexandra Karigan in one of the UNHARVESTED's calmer moments...
...heralded by the slow crossing of the women carried aloft by their partners. This motif is woven into the work through to the end.
Chad Levy and the ensemble in UNHARVESTED.
RIDING THE PURPLE TWILIGHT (ensemble, above) is possibly the most demanding work in Marshall's repertoire in terms of the sheer demands it makes on the dancers. The undercurrents of energy and the velocity of the the combinations create an illusion that there are more than six dancers onstage.
The individual dancers grasp the opportunities for personal expression (Kimberly Lyons, above)...
...or appear in fleeting duets (Alex Karigan and Zac Hammer, above). Kevin Keller's score here begins to take on an exotic Mid-Eastern feeling which stretches further into the Orient with the concluding DVIJA.
In this newest Marshall/Keller collaboration the gold-clad dancers (above) seem like iconic figues from some ancient carvings in a lost temple set deep in a mysterious jungle. Norma Kamali designed the costumes which accentuate the sensuous aspects of the rituals which the dancers perform. Swaying and gesturing with supple provocation, the dancers evoke the incense-heavy rites of a proud and powerful tribe of worshipers.
Beautifully lit by Donalee Katz, DVIJA is the most mysterious and alluring work by Amy Marshall that I have seen to date. Above: Kelly McCormick Bangs and Chad Levy. A gallery of additional images from this evocative piece will be found here.
The one curiosity of the evening was that all of the music was in minor keys. And the one missing element was a touch of wit or lightness in a programme steeped in darkness and intense emotions. But the evening worked in the end thanks to the individual communicative powers of the dancers.
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