As soon as the first dancer comes out on stage accompanied by not only rocking music but also stellar multimedia effects, I am locked in with my seatbelt prepared for the ride that I think I am about to be taken on at full speed. But, I'm wrong. The first section of this hour and fifteen minute ballet without intermission is full of personality, energy and interesting fluctuations of dynamics. Then, the show gradually becomes more and more about the singers, one male and one female who spend the show falling in love and intensely harmonizing with one another. I want to see so much more from the dancers, but just as this thought submerges, another effect is put on the singers' voices, and they get turned up again! The singers are beautiful, but I came to see a dance show, not a cruise ship show with back-up dancers. Don't get me wrong, the dancers do dance and some of the choreography is stunningly imaginative (especially the group movement patterns when the whole company is on stage and the seemingly effortless spiral falls to the floor that are a company staple), but there just isn't enough.
At one point, Julie Blume, the technically and emotionally striking soloist in this ballet, is in a "gilded cage" (as it is explained on the projector screen upstage) that is created with lighting. She writhes in the cage and, sometimes, she is on the verge of a much needed expressive, finished movement, but it doesn't happen. "Unfinished movement and expressions" seems to be the theme for this evening for the dancers. Unfortunately, it is the singers who get the chance to finish every movement and expression, which is disappointing because the dancers seem so capable and talented.
Kudos to lighting designer Howell Binkley. The multimedia during the gilded cage section is astonishing in that the focus alternates between a white silhouette of Julie in a pose on the upstage screen and a spotlit Julie lying in her gilded cage in the same position. Immediately following her sentence in the prison, the company comes gradually toward her from offstage left, their downstage hands touching elbows creating a locomotive train feel as the one connected arm rows forwards, backwards and up and around. On the upstage screen, there is a video replicating their onstage movements with an added mirror effect creating an upside down version of the locomotive corresponding with the right-side up view, which creates not only an interesting kaleidoscope effect emphasizing the beauty of the choreography but also a disappearing effect every time they bend down close to the middle horizontal dividing line on the screen. On the lighting note, there is another interesting point in the show when only the most downstage section of the stage is lit from the wings, so the dancers appear out of thin air like phantoms as they emerge from the shadows every time they move from upstage to down stage. This particular lighting is a metaphor for the entire show, the dancers exist in the shadows of the singers.
The only reason I am being harsh on the choice to focus on the singers so much is because of the enormous talent that I see a sprinkling of within the company that is being stifled in this program. It is nice to understate in a classy way in order to come to a pinnacle at some point. The dancers never get to break through, a point which I was anticipating all night. I have to admit that I was a Parsons Dance virgin prior to tonight's program. Having no familiarity with this company whatsoever could contribute to my "wanting to see so much more" attitude.
Maybe if I had seen program B, I would want just a sprinkling of understatement to go along with "going all out" for over an hour. I am very curious to see what is brought to the Parsons table next time. This was a tease.
iDANZ Critix Corner
Dance Review by Adrienne Jean Fisher
Performance: Parsons Dance Company -Remember Me, A Collaboration with the East Village Company
Venue: Joyce Theater, New York City
Performance: Thursday, January 15, 2009
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