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diversions
Light and life
dance 'Before Your Eyes'
By Glenn Zucman
Special to the On-line Forty-Niner
"Before Your
Eyes," the masters of fine arts thesis concert, featured
the choreography of five graduate students: Theresa Chapman,
Holly Clark, Heather Kemp, Carrie E. Oleson and Leah Sandor
last weekend at the Martha B. Knoebel Dance Theatre. The concert
was directed by fellow MFA candidate Sandra Gutierrez.
Chapman's solo, "Back at the Beginning with a Little
More Light" was the virtuosic pinnacle of the evening.
Chapman, the choreographer, was fortunate to have someone
as talented as Chapman, the dancer, to perform this big, powerful,
intense and demanding work.
The solo was really a duet between Chapman and lighting designer
and technical director Andrew Milhan's lights. Chapman's tour
de force boldly presented itself stripped of all but the essentials.
Her black and white sheathed body commanded a naked stage
powerfully illuminated by Milhan's colorless lights.
In sweeping out the clutter and distraction of color and artifice,
Chapman and Milhan allowed us, indeed forced us, to focus
on the raw power of Chapman's movement. Milhan's extensive
use of ground level lighting presented Chapman's dynamic form
in striking relief.
Chapman's show closing group piece, "From the Dreamer's
Dictionary" featured intense performances from three
of her fellow choreographers: Clark, Kemp and Oleson, as well
as the evening's second taste of Marla McReynolds-Lowey's
inspiring line.
After having already seen two of Clark's Latin-jazz flavored
compositions it was truly impressive to see the brilliance
with which she inhabited the quick, strong movements of the
frantic, abject dreamer.
Was Clark's dreamer suffering through a nightmare? Synthesizing
and integrating the products of her emotional life? The audience
may not have been quite sure, but their visceral connection
to Clark's harshly diaphanous movements was unmistakable.
The second movement of Chapman's group piece was owned by
Oleson, or more specifically by Oleson's hair. Against a black
scrim, Oleson's sudden movements repeatedly unfurled her hair
into Milhan's glaring lights. It is difficult to imagine that
flailing hair could be such a potent dance element, but with
Oleson's it truly was.
For "Dreamer's Dictionary," Chapman asked four of
the dancers in her piece to describe their dreams, then researched
the imagery in a book of dream iconography and used those
ideas as source material for her choreographic exploration.
As movement ideas came to her she would try them out and then
give them to her dancers. But instead of showing the movements
to them, she would explain them in words, thus allowing each
dancer to realize the movement in their own kinesthetic style.
As the movements evolved Chapman would refine them so that
the finished whole would bear her unified choreographic sensibility.
In a telling moment late in the solo, Clark struggled upstage,
restrained by her dance partner, the red scarf. It bound her
waist as a hand on either side, pulled it backwards and away
from her true love in an effort to explore the realm where
Latin and modern might meld. After this passage of restraint,
Clark, in the solo's conclusion finally let go and served
up powerful and inspired movement.
Dancegoer CSULB President Robert Maxson gave the dancers a
high rating.
"I love the show," said Maxson. "They're great
dancers, but [also] so athletic, I love their high energy.
They all get an 'A' from me!
"There must be 3,000 college and university dance
departments in America, to be in the top ten is pretty amazing.
The dance department is one of the green spots on the campus."
While one would love to see big, intensely physical Kemp choreography
with all the stops pulled out, in fact the self-imposed restraint
in "Waiting" has served her well. During portions
of the dance her dancers gave way to weight and found themselves
low to the stage floor; suddenly one would leap into the air
where her brightly colored costume would catch the intense
radiation of Milhan's present but previously unfelt lighting.
Like a solar flare that is defined only by the coronal absence
around it, Kemp's measured moments of power were defined by
her restraint.
Kemp said she describes herself as really interested in the
physicality of dance.
"I tend to want to go to all that physical movement that's
fun and looks cool to watch and you just feel good, you feel
like a dancer," said Kemp. "On this piece, I've
toned it down a lot, there were some partnering moments that
were a lot bigger, and some big legs all over the place which
was kind of straying from the theme of "waiting."
Altogether, Gibbs architecture, Gutierrez direction, Milhan's
lighting and five diverse choreographers offered up
a unique evening of exploration of body and mind. But lest
we focus too much on the cerebral aspects of the work, we
should consider the thoughts of Kemp, who has frequently questioned
the wisdom of a dance degree, but who has always found the
answer within herself.
"It would kill me to know what was going on in that dance
building and not be a part of it," said Kemp. "I
really like feeling movement, what it feels like to do the
movement, and how you're just kind of going along for this
ride. You sweat and you're tired and you just can't get enough
of it.
"I think that as long as there are human beings on the
planet, dance is going to be necessary," Kemp added.
"With technology moving fast paced, I feel like dance
is the only thing that keeps us in contact with other humans.
I want to keep bringing dance out to people, people need affection
and to be touched by other people and hugged and consoled
and all of those things are movement."
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