The first, Iron Lung, was already familiar to us from the GroundWorks concert at Akron Icehouse. Watching it for the second time, we found we liked it even more than before, not least because we felt that our Instant Karma review for Cool Cleveland's 9/21/05 issue seemed to ring true. The best clue we can give anyone to this dance is the one we gleaned from reviews of the New York-based choreographer Keely Garfield -- her pas de deux take a darkly funny view of contemporary relationships. Except that in Iron Lung she's left out the funny parts. Contrasted light and heavy movements add up to an extended meditation on relationships that are all somehow lopsided, unequal and unenviable. Heartbreaking, if you will. Aqualung, which provides the music for this dance, never caught our ear before but it sounds great to us in this context. Darkness speaks to depth here, and if we had Iron Lung on DVD we'd put it on the shelf between the songs of Kurt Weill and the writings of Joan Didion.
In the next dance on the program, Before Night Comes, we found ourselves watching two strong performances at once, mezzo-soprano Anne Adams and dancer Amy Miller. Adams was singing Luciano Berio's Sequenza III. The song's capricious shifts of mood suggested at times a person overheard talking to herself. The singer's movements were small but often fascinating, as when she fluttered her hand before her mouth as she sang. Miller, meanwhile, had been given large movements, including big curving running passages, that projected dramatic, passionate intensity.
We hadn't even read the program note before the dance; as a result, we were sure we'd missed something. What did it all mean? It was only after we returned home and read the press release with choreographer Nusha Martynuk's description of this dance as "an exploration of the music's changing emotional tones" that we felt we had an adequate conceptual handle on the dance. We take consolation in the likelihood that GroundWorks may well do the dance again.
Also on the program was a revival of Artistic Director David Shimotakahara's Music Room, a piece we missed when it was performed previously. A set piece, a doorway, figured prominently as did 8 or so pieces of recorded music. African rhythms, spoken word by Laurie Anderson, singing by Meredith Monk and hand clapping by Steve Reich. Often the dancing created some kind of visualization of the music. Typically each section ended with the door: Miller sinking to her knees at the door, Shimotakahara finding the door locked and knocking insistently and Jen Lott slamming the door just as the music ends.
Like Kabila, which we saw in Akron last month, Music Room was danced as a quintet. It would appear that after a long apprenticeship, GroundWorks is using Jennifer Lott more and more. We noticed that in Music Room she had the stage to herself for a while and danced a reprise of a phrase Miller had danced earlier. It bodes well that the company has found someone who is not only talented but also growing so nicely into her place in the ensemble.
GroundWorks new promotional website is http://www.NotSoObvious.com, an apt description of much of their work. We would advise their audience to prepare for concerts by thoroughly reading program notes as well as preview pieces. GroundWorks doesn't sport the pop accessibility of some dance companies they have a rewarding depth and richness.
GroundWorks Dance Theatre performed at CCC Metro 10/ 14 - 10/16/05.
From Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas vicnelsaATearthlink.net
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