Results tagged “spectrumdancetheater”

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.

DOWN ON THE CORNER: The Corner, our favorite one monthly live hiphop night down at the Rendezvous, has its one-year anniversary tonight. (Already?!) As usual, Oldominioner Candidt has put together a stellar line-up: JFK of Grayskul, Silent Lambs Project with Lisa Loud, and UW reps Rudy & The Rhetoric; he'll also throw in a set of his own. So solid. We've been looking forward to this for months now!

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.