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Forty years ago, Pilobolus began to surprise the world with an inventive physicality, out-of-the-box ideas and an extraordinary knack for collaborative work. This Friday they debut a preview of a new work in Atlanta.

#Pilobolus

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"Dance preview: Pilobolus returns to Ferst Center with playful new works"

This Friday Pilobolus will visit Atlanta on its national tour to perform at Georgia Tech’s Ferst Center for the Arts at 8 p.m., one night only. Check out my preview for ArtsATL.com here:

http://www.artsatl.com/2012/03/pilobolus-dance-theatre-returns-to-ferst-center-with-playful-new-work-in-progress/

#Pilobolus #Ferst Center for the Arts

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Atlanta Ballet premiered Twyla Tharp's "The Princess and the Goblin" last month at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. Alessa Rogers, portraying Princess Irene, and Jacob Bush, playing her friend Curdie, hinted at a deeper romance unfolding in this pas de deux. Photo by Charlie McCullers, Courtesy of Atlanta Ballet. 

#Atlanta Ballet #Alessa Rogers #Jacob Bush #Twyla Tharp #The Princess and the Goblin #Charlie McCullers

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Atlanta Ballet presents Twyla Tharp's world premiere "The Princess and the Goblin"

Last month Atlanta Ballet premiered the renowned ballet and broadway choreographer Twyla Tharp's new work "The Princess and the Goblin." Here is a stellar review for all of you who might have missed the premiere:

http://www.artsatl.com/2012/02/review-atlanta-ballet-triumphs-in-world-premiere-of-twyla-tharp’s-masterful-“princess-and-the-goblin”/

#Atlanta Ballet #Twyla Tharp #The Princess and the Goblin

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Alvin Ailey Dance Theater performed hip-hop choreographer Rennie Harris' "Home" last month at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. Audiences held their breath at the grace and ease colliding with hip-hop's edgy steps. "Home" is undoubtably the gem of Ailey's touring season. A life-affirming work inspired by stories of those affected by AIDS, "Home" pulsed with energy and heartfelt expression. 

#Alvin Ailey Dance Theater #Rennie Harris

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"Review: Alvin Ailey Dance Theater’s 'Home' pays beautiful, haunting homage to lives destroyed by AIDS"

Alvin Ailey Dance Theater returned to Atlanta's Fox Theatre in February during Black History Month. As their first season with Robert Battle as Artistic Director, the season represents a momentous occasion bringing new opportunities. Read my review of their Atlanta performance at ArtsATL.com: 

http://www.artsatl.com/2012/02/review-alvin-ailey-dance-theater’s-“home”-pays-beautiful-haunting-homage-to-lives-destroyed-by-aids/

#Alvin Ailey Dance Theater #Fox Theatre #Robert Battle

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"Preview: Choreographer Kyle Abraham will bring his lush, complex 'The Radio Show' to Emory"

Kyle Abraham and his company Abraham.In.Motion performed his signature work, “The Radio Show,” last month in the Dance Studio Theater at Emory University. The work received a Bessie Award in 2010. Here is a preview I wrote for ArtsATL.com, previously ArtsCriticATL.com, for the show:

http://www.artsatl.com/2012/02/preview-choreographer-kyle-abraham-will-bring-his-lush-complex-“the-radio-show”-to-emory/

#Kyle Abraham #Emory University

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Kyle Abraham and his company Abraham.In.Motion performed the award-winning "The Radio Show" at Emory University last month. Photo by Steven Schreiber.  

#Kyle Abraham

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Atlanta-based Full Radius Dance is a “modern dance company working within the field of physically integrated dance.” Known for their choreographic incorporation of dancers in wheelchairs, they are extremely prolific in their movement vocabularies and exhibit exceptional creativity. From left, Laurel Lawson, Julie Holcomb, Samir Jusupovic and Onur Topal-Sumer dance outdoors. Photo by Scott Bragg. 

#Full Radius Dance

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Critic’s Journal: Full Radius Dance inspires

On Jan. 21 I attended the inventive Full Radius Dance’s twentieth anniversary celebration at 7 Stages in Little Five Points. Defined as a “modern dance company working within the field of physically integrated dance,” Full Radius Dance is known for their choreographic incorporation of dancers in wheelchairs.

Their performance impressed me and pasted my expectations for numerous reasons.

First, to be blunt, the choreography showed a depth of emotion and skill beyond what I anticipated, which in reflection I guess was Liz Lerman Dance Company’s sweet, but sometimes too delicate, integration of elderly dancers and dancers in wheelchairs. Instead, I discovered founder and artistic director Douglas Scott bold enough to choreograph entire adventurous segments with wheelchair-bound dancers.

Secondly, the content of the works were investigative in ways that were both tender and provoking. Scott’s “The Path Beyond” examines the body and spirit’s destruction for those left behind after a crisis in life’s journey. It ended the show by beautifully merging radio talk show “Surviving Survival” recordings with the music of J.S. Bach, Zoe Keating, Bill Ryan, and Dubose Heyward with Ira Gershwin. The vocal recordings served as soft transitional chapter markers for choreographic episodes of shock, sadness, reflection and recovery.

 Thirdly, Full Radius also offered an intimate connection with the audience that sometimes gets lost in technical maneuverings. The dancers awarded viewers warm bouts of eye contact along with winks and laughable poses during Scott’s Merce-Cunningham-inspired “Thrift.”

Lastly, there was artistic abstraction offered that was relevant to contemporary visual art trends, as well as to the intangible conjectures popular in post-modernism. The new work by company member, filmmaker and choreographer Onur Topal-Sümer perfectly displayed this through his audience involvement exercise that asked viewers to pop bubble wrap sporadically through his work “Ethos/Pathos/Logos.” With no definition or identifiable characters audiences were left trying to tie the huge implications of these three Greek words used for the title to dancers and movement segments.

Overall, I was fully fascinated by Full Radius Dance’s exceptional creativity. They certainly provide Atlanta audiences a specialized glimpse of strength, power and trust that can not be easily found elsewhere. 

#Full Radius Dance #Douglas Scott

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Kennesaw State University student Jamie McCord's "Contra Mores" was performed at Dance Canvas 2012. Photo by Richard Calmes. 

#Kennesaw State University #Jamie McCord #Dance Canvas #Richard Calmes

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'Review: Dance Canvas’ fourth annual showcase paints bright picture of future'

Dance Canvas presented its annual showcase at the Woodruff Arts Center’s 14th Street Playhouse Jan. 20-21. Intent on supporting emerging choreographers’ careers, the program featured works in a diverse range of styles, with a modern dance focus. The choreographers included Ray Hall, Angela Harris, Robert Mason, Jamie McCloud, Sandra Parks, Katie MacMillen Stull, Emily Vanderklay, Tracy Vogt and Dana Woodruff. Check out my ArtsCriticATL.com review: 

http://www.artscriticatl.com/2012/01/review-dance-canvas-4th-annual-showcase-reveals-strong-promise-for-atlantas-dance-future/

#Dance Canvas #artscriticatl #Woodruff Arts Center

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Crossover Movement Arts' Blake Dalton and Erin Weller Dalton performed with spoken-word poet Kodac Harrison at 7 Stages. Photo by Maura Luna. 

#Crossover Movement Arts #Blake Dalton #Erin Weller Dalton

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'January’s jam-packed with modern dance premieres in Atlanta'

Atlanta-based companies Brooks & Company Dance, Crossover Movement Arts, Dance Canvas, Gathering Wild Dance Company and Full Radius Dance all presented concerts this month. Here was a preview I wrote for ArtsCriticATL.com outlining the premieres and performances: 

http://www.artscriticatl.com/2012/01/modern-dance-premieres-abound-in-jam-packed-january/

#Brooks & Company Dance #Crossover Movement Arts #Dance Canvas #Gathering Wild Dance Company #Full Radius Dance

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'Dancers leap, splash and fly in Richard Calmes’ magical photographs'

In December I spoke with Atlanta-based dance photographer Richard Calmes about his life and his work. His history as a Vietnam War combat photographer unexpectedly led to a passion for capturing dance many years later. Check out my Q & A with Calmes for ArtsCriticATL.com:

http://www.artscriticatl.com/2011/12/richard-calmes-discusses-bursts-of-beauty-captured-in-his-photographs/

#Richard Calmes

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Rose Shields danced the role of Baba Yaga, a witchlike character of Slavic folklore, at Brooks & Company Dance's “Into The Dark Wood”on Jan. 5-7 at the Balzer Theatre. Photo by Katherine Manfre. 

#Brooks & Company #Into the Dark Wood #Rose Shields

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Dance Review: “Into the Dark Wood” triumphs over dark villains of children’s fairytales

The first weekend in January Brooks & Company Dance premiered “Into the Dark Wood,” an unexpectingly heroic work based on haunting children’s fairytales warped to meet contemporary reality. 

A dance-theater collaboration, the evening moved through three dark fairytale characters stories filled with an eerie mixture of love, power, death and greed.

Kristyn McGeehan, assistant director for Brooks & Company Dance, is an inspiring choreographer who directed this show as her first full-length evening presentation.

The first character was pulled from Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of The Ice Queen, a woman who uses magic to separate two youth in love. Set to Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi’s music, the Ice Queen represented a cold, heartless perfection that conveys a darker cruelty.

Dancer Jena Michele Kovash brought the Ice Queen new life and gave her an unexpected heat through fiery movements and brash intensity. Yet, at times the choreography became commercialized with recurring turns and balletic predictabilities – a lingering arabesque here and a high leg throw in here. Also, the lovers should have taken their relationship to a deeper level since the plot depended on it.

The second character was the haggish, witchlike Baba Yaga, taken from traditional Slavic folklore. A mythological figure that ruthlessly seeks power, Baba Yaga was perfectly embodied by dancer Rose Shields as she disturbingly creeped and crawled to the Eastern sounds of Vassilis Tsabropoulos and Anja Lechner.

Baba Yaga’s haunting nuances, such as her mane of dirty, invested hair, and her obsessions, such as her blue feather, created the very image of greed. As dancer Cara O’Grady fought her with magnificent force and energy her weakness was her insatiable curiosity.

While Shields slithered and climbed all over her captives bodies with a practiced trust and insatiability her main desire was for working legs, since she herself was disabled. This gluttonous craving was best displayed when she scrambled up O’Grady and perched upon her shoulders only to then become a symbolic puppeteer over O’Grady’s body.  

Mr. Fox from The Brothers Grimm, represented as the third character, was a seductive menace and the darkest, most modern villain yet. Set to the jazzy tunes of Miles Davis, The Rachels and Modeski, Martin & Wood, Mr. Fox hunted females and then used them to try to build a perfect woman.

Performed by Stephen Loch, Mr. Fox’s slinky, thick movements were at once grabbing and repelling. His duet with dancer Sally O’Grady was lush with the complexities of desire and self-centeredness as she would follow his lead and then subvert it to her ideal outcomes. Mr. Foxes sly personality masked his twisted intentions.

When O’Grady discovers his stockpile of female bodies she attempts to escape, embarking on an intense and necessary fight for her life. This was one of the most unforgettable moments of the night. McGeehan’s choreography shone with brilliant lifts and heightened drama as Mr. Foxes true colors came to light.

One of the reasons McGeehan’s work was successful was her counteractive measures against the darkness. Instead of just presenting a work divulging the cruelty and sickness of these characters she represents triumph in each piece’s heroine.

Represented with a white cloth, each heroine at one point loses her independence to the villain. Yet, McGeehan offers redemption and renewal for each. Perhaps this is where the title “Into The Dark Wood” is best alluded to because as the performance progresses each heroines counter measures become more dark themselves.

When Sarah Kelly Kerr overcomes the Ice Queen she does not act in vengeance. She merely stumbles off stage with her dazed lover. Yet, when Cara O’Grady gains her ability to walk back from Baba Yaga she goes a step farther to take Baba Yaga’s prized object, her blue feather.

At it’s darkest, the end of the performance shows the heroine that overcomes Mr. Fox, dancer Sally O’Grady, actually becoming him. She bends into the hunched position Mr. Fox held at the beginning of the piece. Is McGeehan suggesting darkness overpowers? No, to me she is merely offering a warning to all heroines caught in their predator’s snare – do not become what you so despise. 

#Brooks & Company #Kristyn McGeehan #Into the Dark Wood