Sat 12/8
We first heard about Interplay: Six Choreographers present an evening of Ekphrastic Dance at Spaces Gallery through Robert Rubama, a dancer with GroundWorks DanceTheater (GW). We were interviewing him and other members of GW for another article when he told us about Terre Dance Collective and the upcoming concert.
The more we learned the more it seemed like an event worth seeing. The word “ekphrastic” suggested that the choreographers would respond to the art on the walls of Spaces. The choreographers listed included at least two (Rubama and Mary-Elizabeth Ruthann Fenn) whom we knew were skilled performers with choreographic portfolios.
The art on the walls: when we first arrived, we walked around the gallery and perused the art. We were particularly taken with Sarah Kabot’s pieces in the larger gallery space, NYT2015, which deserve a call out. This was a series, covering three walls, of white sheets of paper with tiny figures of people and objects, finely and precisely cut, as the title states, from the actual newspaper. These modulated and changed, sometimes, by an ink wash, which statement does not begin to describe the fragility, the ephemeral, transient quality of these works, pinned so loosely to their white backing with the tiniest of pins — delicate, vulnerable and fluttering slightly as one looked and breathed on them, or walked past, they casting shadows upon themselves. The effect from a distance was not unlike looking at Japanese or Chinese letter icons; there was that kind of simplicity and breathing space on the page.
We were still studying these when the first dance began in that very setting.
In Rubama’s Untitled he slowly, smoothly,and fluidly traveled the length of the gallery several times in 10-15 minutes. Intermittently he turned half or 3/4 turns, turning in his socks on the concrete floor. And from time to time he went down to the floor and held positions that reminded us of Kabot’s cut newspaper shapes on the wall behind him.
Fenn’s Eavesdropping took place in a small space, an L-shaped hallway next to artist James Webb’s Friends of Friends. At one point she produced a pair of tin cans connected by string and eavesdropped on a potted plant standing against the wall. But the primary subject of Fenn’s work as we understood it was her own instrument, her highly trained ballet body moving slowly in a mostly unballetic or anti-balletic way. Yes, there was one rather balletic moment when she reached a stretched and pointed foot high against the wall. But otherwise we could almost see her asking herself what she could do that was the opposite of ballet, as in one striking moment when she stood with both legs internally rotated to the max. Should we designate her a ballet maverick?
We’ve written more than one piece about ballet mavericks, including international diva Michele Wiles and local dancer made good Ali Block. It’s an interesting rather than an easy road to travel.
We also got a look at Samuel McIntosh dancing in response to Webb’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog. He moved slowly on and off the wall, first pressing his hands and forearms against the wall and then turning away from the wall in the popping dance style that he shows online (search “Samuel (10K) McIntosh”) and that he apparently teaches as an adjunct hip-hop dance instructor at Kent State University.
We have seen with our own eyes that Rubama, Fenn and McIntosh are capable of doing much more, much better than they showed at Spaces. All three turned the intensity way down when they transitioned from concert stage (or online video) to gallery. And it need not be that way.
Cleveland dance audiences may remember New Steps, a regional choreographic collaborative that presented dance programs in the galleries of the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Akron Art Museum. The work varied in quality but we remember some stunning pieces. Dance audiences need not leave high expectations behind when they go to see dance in a gallery setting.
Learn more about Terre Dance Collective and Spaces Gallery at their websites.
[Written by Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas]
Cleveland, OH 44113