Results tagged “donaldbyrd”

Last weekend marked the halfway point of Spectrum Dance Theater’s Byrd Retrospective Festival - three weekends, nine shows, 16 works. The festival is an earnest reflection on the influence of Artistic Director and choreographer Donald Byrd, who has rapidly raised Spectrum’s status as a serious contemporary dance company since inheriting its direction in 2002.

This evening is the last performance of Spectrum Dance Theater's "Icono-Clan" show at the Moore, and while the bill contains three works--Merce Cunningham's 1972 Landrover and Gus Solomons, Jr.'s 1976 Statements of Nameless Roots join Donald Byrd's 1993 Sentimental Cannibalism--only Byrd's piece emerges without a self-interested patina from the age of Modern Dance blurring it (or John Cage's elliptical strolls across the piano, or a soundtrack devised by recording microphone feedback). Delightfully, Byrd says that Jean Baudrillard's examination of seduction as "a challenge" and "a highly conventional and ritualized pact" was the jumping off point for his piece, featuring eight Spectrum dancers (four men and four women), and music by Mio Morales. Perhaps through simple chronology, Byrd's piece also represents the most striking reunion of the discipline and possibility of ballet with a wider world of dance gesture and movement. Catch it at 5 p.m. at the Moore Theatre, 1932 Second Avenue. Tickets are $15-$29.50 (plus fees).

One thing about Spectrum Dance Theater's shows is that the dancers have to act fast, and they seem to expect the same of the audience--their "Icono-Clan" show is at the Moore for two shows this weekend, and that's it.

O'Neal's back it up leads off the program, assembling the dancers in street/rehearsal clothes, very "Fame! I'm gonna live forever," with music by MF Doom, X Clan, Riuchi Sakamoto, Pete Rock & CLSmooth, and Cut Chemist (featuring Edan & Mr. Lif). Costumes for all the pieces are by Jessica Markiewicz, and they add a great deal to each. They warm up, step into dance floor moves, pop and lock, and in general, front like an MTV hip hop special. But there's a current of contact improv that flows through the piece--O'Neal said later she was thinking of Peter Pan and his shadow--where the dancers grab at each other's ankles and are pulled along or pull themselves. We're not sure why, but it pleased us, this disruptive play during what felt like a set of polished pros, strutting moves.

The choreographic genius of Spectrum's Donald Byrd makes God-fearing folk swear and the irreligious cry, "Oh my god!" Partly that's because his dancers present as solid, sweating people, rather than mysteriously gesturing messengers. He consistently brings ideas back to the body--his pas de deux can have an X-rated quality--so you feel the argument he's making.

Do dancers hibernate in winter? There's an explosion of dance activity coming up as January draws to a close. Had we but world enough and time, we'd go to all these shows, but time's chariot won't permit us to make up all the stops. Here's the wealth you have to choose from:

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.

If you missed Reggie Wilson's group at On the Boards a few weeks ago, you have the chance to not only make up for it, but to add three other stellar choreographers and one of Seattlest's favorite dance companies to the bill. Opening this evening at Meany Hall as a part of UW's World Series, the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company performs the Seattle premiere of colôr-ógrăphy, n. the dances of Jacob Lawrence. There have been many works of dance inspired by works of art (and obviously, vice versa), but this strikes us as one of the most inspired and poignant pairings we've heard of. We've long been a fan of Lawrence's ability to craft narrative and emotion with simple graphic representations peppered with explosions of color and implied motion (his "Ironers" hangs in our dining room, still by far our favorite).

This is Week 3 of Pacific Northwest Ballet's Celebrate Seattle Festival, and the busiest one. There's the cunningly named Program A, Program B, and Program C, all highlighting the work of locally born or spent-some-time-here choreographers. Plus, one of our favorite good times, 10 Tiny Dances is performing One Tiny Dance in the lobby at intermissions.

As we mentioned the other day, Seattlest was very excited for the PNB production of Carmina Burana, but we left a bit perplexed and frustrated. To start, we enjoyed Mark Morris' Pacific, a light and dreamy piece that found our thoughts wandering in a pleasant way about halfway through, befitting of a day spent listening to the ocean advance and retreat while pretending to read a book. It was a short and "limited" (to borrow from Seattlest Michael's summation) composition, but the perfect exemplar of Morris' work: seamless integration of ballet's technique and precision with the freedom and rule-free whimsy of modern dance. We love that he breaks ballet traditions by having group pieces with three men and one woman, all performing the same choreography (sure, later in Carmina Burana we have a woman with three men but stereotypically she's a harpy and they are pining for her), and the costumes were simple and perfectly suited to the choreography.

THAT STARBUCKS "I WAS A CHILD SOLDIER" GUY: At twelve, Ishmael Beah found himself fleeing rebels, wandering from village to village. At thirteen, he was a soldier in Sierra Leone, hooked on drugs and capable of things he would never have imagined. Now, rehabilitated and living in the U.S., he tells his story in A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, in an attempt to raise awareness of the child soldier phenomenon.

First of all, despite what you read in the Times and the P-I about Donald Byrd's Never-Mind (which came and went over the weekend), it's not all that, as Brendan Kiley says over on the Slog. We've become fans of Byrd's "neo-expressionist" style, but Never-Mind (at this point) is short on style and substance. It came off like "Frank Miller's Never-Mind": an ugly cartoon of drug abuse, of dysfunction, of iconic fame.

8pm tonight, tickets $15-$45 (plus fees)

Here's a special Saturday post, to alert you about the Spectrum Dance Theater double bill, The Miraculous Mandarin / Petruchska; the last show is tonight at 8:00pm at The Moore Theatre. Tickets are $24.50-$29.50 (plus TM fees). SDT Artistic Director Donald Byrd is known for taking contemporary dance in unusual narrative directions. This is a frank exploration sex and violence: a remarkable variety of sexual positions and acts of violence.

All music all the time wears us out, so we decided to hopscotch around Bumbershoot this year and take advantage of the talks, arts performances, and art exhibits.