GroundWorks Dance Theater @ Trinity Cathedral 11/7 We went to see GroundWorks Dance Theater at Trinity Cathedral (a superb example of Gothic Revival, Trinity, a Cleveland landmark, presents some challenges to dance audiences). GW's repertory at Trinity, two world premieres and the Cleveland premiere of Lynn Taylor-Corbett's wonderful Virginia Woolf piece, made this a concert not-to-be-missed...

It’s been a while since we’ve written a review of GW so some catch up is in order. Only last winter Mark Otloski’s knee injury precipitated his retirement from performing and the hiring of Kelly Brunk; at first Brunk danced in parts originally choreographed on Otloski but at Trinity the rep was all new (i.e., since Otloski’s retirement) and originally set on Brunk.

Artistic Director David Shimotakahara, meanwhile, had been gradually – oh, so gradually – retiring from performing. The Trinity concert saw him taking at least a few nights off from dancing (there, David, was that so hard?).

Watching Artistic Associate Amy Miller’s new dance, Allow, we found ourselves contemplating GW’s current roster of dancers -- senior dancers Felise Bagley and Damien Highfield (with Miller refraining from dancing in her own piece) and the new, younger company members, Sarah Perrett and Brunk – and perhaps learning something about how the company, GW, sees itself. Back in the day when GW and its predecessor was a pick up company, its dancers were Shimo’s longtime associates from Heinz Poll’s Ohio Ballet, ballet dancers first and foremost, albeit with a certain flair for modern dance, all senior company members. Otloski, a later addition to GW, was from Cleveland Ballet but as a dancer with a long career in ballet behind him, he fit the original mold to a tee.

And that was what GW was to us, mostly a company of mature ballet dancers performing modern dance, until the company selected Perrett and then Brunk through auditions. Both are young, recent graduates of North Carolina School of the Arts and NYU’s Tisch School of the arts respectively and both, despite considerable skills as ballet dancers, see themselves as modern dancers first. We have noticed with great interest the speed with which these 2 have been integrated into the company. They have quickly proven a very good fit.

Allow: In her program note for Allow, Miller describes the piece in terms of “developing new awareness by dropping old barriers that hinder change.” We acknowledge the newness of Allow, but prefer to describe it in terms of its movement invention, its structure, and the fluid interaction of the 4 dancers.

Allow is a long string of dance phrases with all the dancers dancing – mostly – the same steps at different times. Like several of Miller’s earlier dances, this one has a lot of heterosexual partnering, but she’s not one to repeat herself; the partnering material here seems distinct from her earlier efforts.

We’d describe movement invention in ''Allow' in terms of flung movements originating close to the ground rapidly transitioning into neoclassical lines in lifts high above the ground. Many is the contemporary choreographer who has set out to create dance movement along these line, and seldom is the result so original, fluid, and fully formed. Trying to see the dancers’ transitions from roll to squat to flying through the air we looked between the heads of audience members and learned anew why the seats in modern theaters are banked.

And who partnered whom? Did the senior ballerina, Bagley, jealously keep her favorite partner to herself? Where the newcomers relegated to a subordinate, corps de ballet status? Nope. Everybody danced pretty much the same material with everybody. Objectively speaking the 2 seniors, Bagley and Highfield, probably got more out of some of the lifts, but Allow is a dance for a community of equals, not a hierarchy or competition.

The score for Allow by Alex Christie, his first for GW, was atmospheric rather than rhythmic.

In Unpublished Dialogues, Taylor-Corbett’s Virginia Woolf piece, GW’s youthful newcomers had sizable parts as Woolf’s Younger Self and as Woolf’s Nephew, totally appropriate casting in a singularly clear, accessible dance drama. Postmodern dance is all very well, but Taylor-Corbett shows there’s plenty of juice left in straightforward music visualization, to the Romantic music of Howard Hanson, no less.

We hope that Cleveland audiences will have more opportunities to see Unpublished Dialogues, an excellent fit on GroundWorks’ dancers by a high profile contemporary choreographer.

The world premiere of Shimotakahara’s Polarity brought Bagley, Miller, Perrett, Brunk, and Highfield into a totally different world developed, a program note tells us, from studies originally created for a site specific work at Cleveland Clinic. The dancers were costumed in tight shorts and tunics and a very bright fluorescent fixture on the stage floor dominated the lighting.

Was this the piece that contained Brunk’s notable solo? Or was it Allow? Sorry, it was difficult writing in the dark. During his solo, Brunk performed a traditional ballet showpiece step, turning a half turn each time he whipped his leg from upstage to down. It looked terrific on this tall, limber dancer whose control over feet, legs, and hips was in marked contrast to the loose, reactive way he used his head, chest, and shoulders in the step. A ballet step well done; done well as modern dance.

Polarity is Shimotakahara in his abstract mode, which goes over our heads, more often than not. We find him more accessible in his concrete, funny dances. Remember his duet with Otloski in Inside/Out? So skillfully done. So funny. Perfect casting. There’s a piece we won’t see again for a while.

GroundWorks performed at Trinity Cathedral November 7–9.

From Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas vicnelsaATearthlink.net
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