DANCE REVIEW: GroundWorks DanceTheater at Cain Park by Elsa Johnson & Victor Lucas

Groundworks

Fri 7/15-Sun 7/17

We’ve been out of touch lately with GroundWorks DanceTheater, one of our favorite local companies, so we hastened to Cain Park’s Alma Theater last Saturday where they were performing artistic director David Shimotakahara’s Carmina Burana (2016) and the world premiere of Hex by guest choreographer Adam Barruch.

Back in 1936, Carl Orff originally conceived his treatment of secular poems from the 13th century as a staged production with magic spectacle, and many dance and theater companies have attempted as much. Local dance audiences may remember Dennis Nahat’s highly produced Carmina Burana for what was then called San Jose Cleveland Ballet, with 50 or so highly trained dancers, live orchestra and chorus, and lavish sets and costumes.

GroundWorks’ approach is minimalist by comparison using — for this performance — only eight dancers, recorded music, no set, and abstract red and black costumes by Janet Bolick. Such a Spartan production might seem at odds with Carmina Burana’s thundering percussion.

Then too, one of the problems that dance makers confront in a piece over 45 minutes long with up to 25 distinct songs is finding enough variety while preserving unity. But GroundWorks’ approach here reminds us that successful production does not depend on abundant resources. “At the right moment, give your audience a flower,” said one of Vic’s choreography teachers. “Know when to throw in the kitchen sink,” said another.

Shimotakahara uses both approaches to good effect in this choreography. Bolick makes the old variety/unity dialectic look easy with a costume plot that runs the red and black color scheme through an array of costume changes and modifications from unisex sarongs to trunks, tights and leotards. Dennis Dugan’s lighting design presents clear contrasts from song to song.

Like Orff’s score, GroundWorks’ dancing alternates between raucous excess and tender intimacy. The opening song, “Fortune, Empress of the World,” puts the whole company on stage, throwing their red-lined, black sarongs up over their heads. Moments later, Lauren Garson and Michael Marquez share a tender duet on an otherwise empty stage. The four women dance energetically but sweetly to a song about spring; then the four men perform a boisterous dance perched on each other’s shoulders.

The closest this production of Carmina Burana comes to a set piece is a red rope hanging center stage. Marquez uses it as a torsion pendulum and the other dancers take turns performing subdued improvisations until Damien Highfield, who does an awfully lot of lifting in this concert, uses it to help in a flurry of lifts.

So, running down our scorecards we see variety, check. Unity, check. Flower and kitchen sink, check. Eight dancers, 47 minutes, and a pretty good treatment of Carmina Burana. What canonical musical work will GroundWorks tackle next?

Adam Barruch has apparently been thinking about magic as a subject for dance for a while. He named his Brooklyn-based company Anatomiae Occultii. In 2015 he choreographed a tastefully spooky dance titled Belladonna which, like Hex, also features a grimoire, a how-to book of magic.

The grimoire in Hex is always the center of the dancers’ attention. They all covet it in a barely restrained scramble. As they handle it, the book seems to embody magical powers. Held in two hands it pushes and pulls the dancers about like a divining rod. Opened and rotated 90 degrees it produces a corresponding turn in the dancers’ heads. The book abruptly slides across the floor as if under its own power. The book provides a platform for a dancer to stand on, very upright, very still.

Commissioning new choreography is a risky business. Sometimes a new dance gets performed a few times and then disappears without a trace. But in Hex, GroundWorks’ dancers have given themselves over to a choreographer’s vision and embodied a dance very different from their other repertoire, a dance well worth keeping.

Groundworks DanceTheater performed at Cain Park’s Alma Theater on 7/15-17. See Cain Park’s complete summer schedule including other dance companies here.

In August check out Tremont’s Arts in August series in Lincoln Park, which includes Groundworks and other dance companies.

groundworksdance.org

[Written by Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas]

Cleveland Heights, OH 44118

 

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