Dayton Contemporary Dance Co. @ Meany: Genius Half
Seattlest had high hopes for Dayton Contemporary Dance Company's interpretation of Jacob Lawrence's paintings, presented last night as a part of the UW World Series. Our expectations were met halfway.The evening was bookended beautifully, beginning with an iconic, stunning piece by local choreographer Donald Byrd and concluding with an energetic, celebratory hip-hop/modern dance mashup by Rennie Harris. You absolutely should go if only to see those two, both of which left us inspired and reinvigorated about the still endless possibilities provided by modern dance in the hands of fearless, innovative choreographers.
J Lawrence Paint (Harriet Tubman Remix), Photo by Andy Snow
Byrd chose Lawrence's Harriet Tubman series, and as far as we can tell, the Migration of the Negro series as well, for his remix inspiration. He set contrasting panels of still, blocky graphic combinations of dancers clearly plucked from Lawrence's most famous works, within a framework of endless, frenetic movement: to stop moving was to die. Set to a wildly varying pastiche of decidedly modern remixed music including two songs from Moby's Play album, Sarah Vaughan set to modern electronica, and Bigga Bush, Byrd captured both the paranoid, frantic movement north and people's subsurface but guarded optimism of what was to come. Tubman (danced we believe by Sherri "Sparkle" Williams) weaves in and out of the action, at times clearly in the lead and pointing out the direction to follow, powerfully herding and protecting her fold, at other times wracked with fear and uncertainty.
We were impressed by Byrd's ability to craft clear narrative threads without overwhelming the choreography with tritely obvious themes. We were mesmerized, saddened, inspired and even sincerely overjoyed at multiple points; it has been quite some time since dance made us feel so many emotions so genuinely. The connection to Lawrence's work was expertly incorporated in the choreography, and unlike the Oregonian, we cared not a whit that the fuzzy background video (mostly of a woman in a red dress running in dreamy slow motion) did not clearly evoke the paintings themselves--had Byrd done that, we would have been disappointed.
In between Byrd and Harris, we were more puzzled by DCDC artistic director Kevin Ward's "Continuing Education" and Reggie Wilson's "We ain't goin' home but we finna to get the hell up outta here." While we could detect the thematic connection to Lawrence's works in Ward's piece--we caught hints here and there of the paintings he listed as his inspiration, most notably the two couples clearly drawn from "Taboo"--we found the choreography and music far too schizophrenic to render a cohesive whole. It was uncomfortable to watch, which we expect was intentional, but it didn't go anywhere that made sense to us. Our prediction that Lawrence's Wounded Man reinterpreted via dance had the potential to be a modern classic? Not very spot on. Reggie Wilson's piece suffered a similar fate; while the costumes and choreography were visually more appealing, it sadly stayed true to the title, not ever really knowing where it was going.
Given that the last Pacific NW Ballet show we went to brought down the house, we expected the audience to jump to their feet with us at the end of Rennie Harris' "Jacob's Ladder" (pictured above right). We were on our feet, but about half the house was not. Or, in the words of the elderly gentleman seated behind Seattlest, "Well, that was different." Hallelujiah, yes it was. Different, vibrant, explosive, and full of a vitality and fluidity made possible only by urban styles of movement that companies like DCDC are thankfully continuing to inject into modern dance.
Remember back when, reviewing Locust's Mockumentary, we proclaimed that hip-hop and funk belong onstage--on big, formal stages--with modern dance? That conclusion was writ large at Meany Hall last night, as the stage pulsed with dancers in modern white clothes who popped, writhed, pirouetted, shook, leapt and strutted to an irresistible collage of Zap Mama songs. Harris succeeded in evoking what Lawrence showed through his paintings, that "movement is the last manifestation of one's reality." The Oregonian didn't get it, and many others also likely will not. But DCDC and Rennie Harris showed us last night what modern dance is, and always has been about: breaking down established barriers, incorporating new forms, and celebrating everything that movement is capable of when you strip away the rules and expectations. Bravo, Rennie Harris and bravo Dayton Contemporary Dance Company!
Jacob's Ladder, photo by Andy Snow.
