Too booku2/28/2024 ![]() The two troupes spent two weeks together at the end of August/beginning of September to develop the choreography. I ask creative director and costume designer, Robert Rosenwasser, during the intermission exactly how the joint project was accomplished. But, most importantly, the dancers from both companies form a new entity and move as if they work together all the time. SIdney Carter, is largely of a religious or spiritual nature and helps frame the piece as one with higher aspirations beyond the mundane world. ![]() The music, comprising of some original compositions by Ben Juodvalkis with other works by the Chamber Choir of Versija, Escolania de Montserrat, Richard Kaplan and Mrs. There is time and space for the dancers to experiment with their individual voices. The movement is lush and sensual with constantly changing levels and textures. The rest unfolds in small groups of men or women, a section for one woman who switches between being lifted high above by four men and climbing on their backs, a pair of pas de deux, as well as large group portions. Once they stop running, bits of choreography ripple through the group creating visual echos. Gradually movement phrases emerge from the group until one large mass runs unstoppably in a giant circle, expanding and contracting, like a gigantic organism. The stage is filled with bodies and at the center one tall woman starts her own private dance ritual. Often the work King makes on his own company can begin to look too similar, but here, with new artists on whom to create, he seems to find fresh inspiration. Hubbard Street Dance and LINES Ballet join forces in Azimuth Alonzo King’s choreography for this ballet could hardly be more distinctly different from Cerrudo’s of the previous one. Meredith Webster & David Harvey of Alonzo King Lines Ballet perform in Azimuth. The dancers are really top-notch, razor-edge precise and boundlessly energetic, but limited to an eclectic vocabulary reflecting a Nederlands Dans Theater aesthetic that continues in the same vein with little variation in the rhythmic dynamics. All of this mix of shenanigans is highly amusing and yet at moments very touching, especially the end when one couple moves toward back center stage and pushes the wall it splits into rotating parts, darkness swallowing them as the four separate panels turn mysteriously in the shadows. The music runs the gamut from Philip Glass to Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. Several pas de deux alternate with groups often in unison. But best of all, two panels are covered in velcro and when a couple of dancers dressed in velcro suits throw themselves against them they are stuck splayed across them. Four large panels form a wall that splits apart, rotates, reassembles. More people run on and off stage doing quirky movements. The moves all look like magnified gestures, executed with maximum efficiency and accuracy, ending only when he dives into the orchestra pit. He does a very fast and precise bit of what I call generic contemporary ballet. A man emerges from the audience and runs onto the stage. (Click image for larger version)īut back to this ballet. Hubbard Street Dance Chicago perform Little mortal jump. I can just hope that that are some who are interested in what I write. In the beginning I thought everything was amazing and as time went on I gained perspective. In the five decades I’ve been watching dance I’ve seen an enormous amount and there isn’t much that’s really new anymore. I’ll attempt to be more forgiving than I sometimes am because it’s important to remember that many spectators are simply enjoying the dance and anything I have to say is largely irrelevant to them. This ballet, by resident choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo, is energetic, whimsical, even a bit serious at times and a tremendous audience hit. Little mortal jump, Azimuth, Too BeaucoupĪ week after the Joffrey Ballet appeared in Berkeley, the second blast of the Windy City invasion hits as Hubbard Street Dance Chicago leaps onto the stage at Zellerbach Hall in Little mortal step. Hubbard Street Dance Chicago & LINES Ballet Kellie Epperheimer of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago performs in Azimuth.
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