Above: Loretta Thomas in Isadora Duncan's Ondine
~ Author: Oberon
Thursday April 4th, 2019 - Loretta Thomas's Moving Visions Dance presenting new dances by Loretta Thomas and Catherine Gallant, as well as classic works from the Isadora Duncan repertory at Baruch Performing Arts Center.
Live music enhanced the production at every turn, with Ensemble212 (conductor Yoon Jae Lee) playing music by Vivaldi and Schubert, first as an overture and later as interludes during the evening. This ensemble of six players produced a rich, resonant sound. After the interval, they played Stephen Barber's music for string quartet to accompany Loretta Thomas's Homage and Les Mots.
The top-notch pianist Nathaniel LaNasa's playing of beloved works by Frédéric Chopin for Chopin Suite showed clarity, vivacity, and nuance thru changing moods; and a marvelous trumpeter, Kevin Blancq, gave a virtuosic rendering of Lisa Bielawa's Synopsis #5 for an excerpt from Catherine Gallant's Escape from the House of Mercy. Kudos to lighting designer Lauren Parrish, whose thoughtful work highlighted moments of drama in the dance.
The dancers this evening were: Natalia Brillante, Eleanor Bunker, Marie Carstens, Abra Cohen, Ilana Cohen, Janete Gondim, Charlotte Hendrickson, Jessie King, Erica Lessner, Megan Minturn, Holly Mitchell, Corinne Shearer, Ms. Gallant, and Ms. Thomas.
The program opened with the Andante and Scherzo from Isadora Duncan's setting of Schubert's 9th symphony. Mr. LaNasa joined Yoon Jae Lee at the keyboard whilst Ensemble212 summoned the illusion of a full orchestra with their vibrant sound. Catherine Gallant staged the Andante, danced in creamy, satiny tunics by an ensemble of nine women. Their lovely rites were presided over by Marie Carstens as a priestess of imposing personal dignity with a flair for the dramatic. The women form a circle, cupping their hands with offerings to the goddess: beautiful imagery!
Ms. Thomas staged the Scherzo, a quartet of acolytes (Abra Cohen, Jessie King, Holly Mitchell, and Corinne Shearer) dancing the animated, inimitable Duncan motifs non-stop in flame-coloured scarves. Catherine Gallant, a petite woman with a deeply feminine, evocative presence, was the soloist.
Following Ensemble212's rendering of ballet music from Schubert's Rosamunde, Nathan LaNasa had the piano all to himself, playing Chopin for a series of iconic Duncan danceworks: six solos and two duets. It was thru dance that I became familiar with Chopin's works: after watching many performances of Fokine's Les Sylphides and Jerome Robbins' Dances at a Gathering, this music lives deep in my consciousness.
Mr. LaNasa was able to sustain a remarkable pianissimo atmosphere as Ms. Gallant gave a wonderfully pensive performance of Prelude, the lighting perfectly capturing the dancer and the dance. In Line Mazurka, the wonderful Eleanor Bunker danced with a lovely lilt, and come-hither enticements.
In translucent white, with sleeves flowing full-length to the floor, Loretta Thomas gave the undulating aquatic gestures and lyrical turns of Ondine - the water-nymph who tragically falls in love with a mortal man - a quietly ecstatic quality, entrancing to behold.
In sorbet tunics, Holly Mitchell and Corinne Shearer became increasingly playful in the course of Sisters. For Echarpe, Ms. Carstens sustained the outstanding impression she'd made in the Schubert Andante with a dance of waltzy seduction, sometimes pausing to stamp her foot.
In Narcissus, Abra Cohen caught the many moods of the music in an excellent interpretation, including a Duncanesque floor passage delivered with natural artistry. Jessie King followed this with another very impressive solo performance: Anima Animus, played with sublime softness by Mr. LaNasa. The dancer, in a persimmon tunic, expresses quiet joy in her finely-articulated dancing.
The expressive powers of Mlles. Thomas and Gallant made for a beautiful finish to the first half of the evening: in Nocturne, with ecstatic gestures, Ms. Thomas seeks to rouse and revitalize the slumbering Ms. Gallant. Restored to the world, Ms. Gallant follows the inspiring Ms. Thomas back to the land of the living.
With two delightful Vivaldi interludes from Ensemble212 tucked into the program's second half, we saw contemporary choreography from Ms. Gallant and Ms. Thomas.
In an excerpt from Catherine Gallant's Escape from the House of Mercy, trumpeter Kevin Blancq animated the Bielawa score with his witty, deft playing, sometimes employing a mute. Dancers Abra Cohen, Charlotte Hendrickson, Jessie King, and Erica Lessner, clad in old petticoats, appear to be 'fallen women' now reduced to near-slavery working in Magdalen laundries near the end of the 19th century (apparently there was one in my neighborhood!) It's a quirky piece, with off-kilter partnering and running in place...running fast but getting nowhere, as women have been forced to do for eons. Kudos to the dancers, Mr. Blancq, and to Ms. Gallant for delving into yet another forgotten chapter of women's history.
Loretta Thomas's Homage finds a trio of women - Mlles. Bunker, Gallant, and Thomas - in tunics over tights, whilst the quartet of Mlles. Cohen, King, Mitchell and Shearer come and go. The piece seemed to evoke images of Duncan dancers in ballet class.
This is followed by a second short Stephen Barber composition - the gorgeous Les Mots - in which the choreographer/dancer - Ms. Thomas - is in a state of thoughtful melancholy. She hovers between hope and world weariness, as if searching for an answer. Instead, she leaves us with a questioning look as she exits the stage.
The premiere of Loretta Thomas's Everyman's Reroof, a dance that addresses both the mistreatment of women and the gender inequality that is so deeply ingrained in our culture...well, in the world itself, actually. One might think that by the 21st century we would be farther along in dealing with these issues, but there is still so much work to be done. In the dance world, Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham have been beacons of light when it comes to works in the spirit of feminine empowerment. (Graham's company is currently involved with their EVE Project). Ms. Thomas's new ballet carries on that tradition.
Everyman's Reroof is set to Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in C-minor. In the first movement, four dancers (Mlles. Cohen, King, Mitchell, and Shearer) seem to be dancing different solos simultaneously: they are seeking, questioning, lamenting...and angry; but each remains in her own sphere. In the second movement, they begin to connect, becoming mutually supportive and sometimes dancing in unison. In the finale, animated and life-affirming, they celebrate the power of sisterhood.
~ Oberon