Karin Stevens Premieres Second Season at Fremont Abbey
Recently, we headed over to the Fremont Abbey Arts Center to catch a performance by relative newcomer Karin Stevens Dance Company. The Abbey’s resident dance company was premiering the first work of their second season in Seattle, aptly named 2nd Season Performance #1, collaborating with a group of musicians, sound and light technicians and costume designers also in association with the arts space.
The performance space only afforded room for about 120 chairs - most were filled - yet we were lucky enough to snag a seat right next to the musicians’ camp at stage right, which included cellist Emily Ann Peterson and the Mack Grout Jazz Trio. We really enjoyed the excellent jazz trio, which opened the evening with a short intro and played at interludes during the program. Peterson accompanied the kick-off piece with a Suite for Cello No 1 in G Major by Bach.
At intermission, a very pregnant Stevens introduced herself and graciously thanked the community for its support. Stevens’ husband and two daughters had a strong presence this evening as well, an indication that Stevens’ decision to leave the Bay Area and start a Seattle-based dance company two years ago was a venture that, at its root, derived nourishment from her family. We only mention this because Stevens’ role as a mother, the loving way she interacts with her family unit as well as her friends and supporters highly influences the way she approaches choreography: from what we saw Friday night, Stevens creates ballet-based movement that may be frenzied but never contains conflict; she favors simple, smooth expression that (intentional or not) invokes images of peace and the natural world: flowing water, spinning, gestures simulating growth and expansion, joining, twining, caressing, dancing carefree in a sunny field…and she doesn’t - or can’t - seem to depart from these themes. The music Stevens chooses trends this way as well. (Interestingly, Bach’s Suite for Cello No 1 in G Major inspired Yo Yo Ma and Julie Moir Messervy to design a garden).
2nd Season Performance #1 contained five works, yet Stevens relies throughout on a core set of movements to help fill out her choreography, notably the leg brush into second position and a cradling gesture of the arms. We didn’t find too much distinction from one piece to another, although And You Will Renew The Face of the Ground was the most mature and Point of Departure, an 18-month collaboration with musician Craig van der Bosch, while rusty, showed the most promise.
Overall, we anticipate that Stevens’ company will find its niche in the Seattle dance community; it’s an opportunity for mid-level dancers to gain experience rehearsing and performing evening-length material, an opportunity for a young choreographer to find her footing and an opportunity to bring another collaborative aspect to the Fremont Abbey arts community. In its current form, Karin Stevens Dance Company contains all the elements of a start-up: sparse costumes, a dance corps that was cast last fall, and (Stevens admitted) a lighting and set design learning curve in their resident space. Fittingly, Stevens’ company will probably find room to blossom in Seattle.
