We went to see SAFMOD's first concert post Young Park. Although we cannot presume to divine the future of an artistic journey from its first steps, don't look here for laments of Park's departure. If you were a Young Park fan and supporter who, fearing that SAFMOD without Park would be less than it was when she directed it, stayed away from the recent SAFMOD concert at CPT, you should be asking yourself what you missed, huddled at home with your expectations.

Plenty of the SAFMOD faithful showed up at Cleveland Public Theaters' Gordon Square on Saturday night and we also saw choreographers and dancers from many of Cleveland's dance companies in the audience. The concert started on time and proceeded with nary a hitch or a bobble. Technical Director Earl Z. Browne III's tech was notably clean throughout the concert, especially considering that it must involve the miking and mixing of many live percussion instruments. Trad Burns' lighting design, including SAFMOD's customary black light, provided vivid illumination. The costume plot, mostly by Alexandra Underhill, ran the gamut from low budget modern dance tights and leotards to eye-popping essays in urban/industrial chic.

All this polish came from a company known for gritty street credentials.

The concert started with Soft Strength, a dance for five or six women in tights and leotards. The lights came up on dancers standing with their backs to what looked at first like mats. After a few times through a simple opening phrase, they picked up the mats, which proved to actually be large pieces of light fabric, somewhat like veils. Then all but one of the women wafted off. Her solo was followed by an ensemble section, another solo, a duet, and an ensemble finale. Music by Edward Caner and the movement sometimes suggested belly dance. The scarves were variously manipulated; in the duet and the ensemble finale they were rolled and pulled tight to create the appearance of staves, hence the title. It's a dance with low key, unspectacular dancing, but with simple, interesting enough movement patterns that despite being altogether modest in its ambitions, leaves a certain feeling of satisfaction.

Then the considerably more eye-popping stuff SAFMOD is known for started.

We knew that Symbiosis, a stilt dance duet for Aaron Bonk and Alexandra Underhill, involved supports and carries, but the big surprise was Underhill's little sorties. Not only can she design and model clothes; she can vamp! In Symbiosis she displayed a certain runway savoir-faire, a chi-chi femininity that we don't recall seeing on stilts before. As worn by Underhill, stilts become the new must-have fashion accessory. (Of course, with stilts one will fall down from time to time and when that happens there's nothing to do but what Ms. Underhill did on Saturday night: get back up and vamp some more, so everyone will know you're not hurt).

The costumes looked like animal pelts, but also like full body tattoos; they were very interesting. And Bonk was no mere porter; when his turn came to circumambulate the action he took full advantage with turns and up and downs on his four stilts.

Unwound was another nice, modest little study, a solo choreographed and performed by Hope Schultz, the new Movement Director and notable for its simplicity and its refusal to overreach. One movement involved a traveling turn that ended in a held position; all nice and rhythmic and completely under control like something out of a Kirov syllabus... except that it's break dance and the held position is a twisted headstand. Does this piece contain the seeds of future choreography? We hope so. As we remember, in Park's last efforts she was just beginning to choreograph for the break dancers as opposed to bringing them out and just letting them do their individual thing.

As the title suggests, Seen and Heard is a percussion composition designed to be seen as well as heard. We found ourselves wishing it were available as a CD. Composer Neil Chastain with Tim Lane and Ron Tucker played low, high and walked around their instruments (a percussion installation by John Ranally, Jr.) in a handclapping break that progressed to patting cheeks and mouths. The world was Chastain's drum and all perfectly audible, thanks, we suppose, to some nice body mikes. On Saturday night a few people laughed a little, but Chastain didn't appear to be playing for laughs. Several people we talked to found this the highlight of the concert. We can't disagree. It was, alone, worth the price of admission.

Untitled was a long group jam of a dance loosely choreographed by Hope Schultz in collaboration with the SAFMOD dancers. Like a lot of Cirque de Soleil's acts it's built around the story of an innocent through whose eyes we see events unfold.

Hope Schultz played a sweet young innocent sleeping below three large sculptures by Ranally. Her outfit included a pair of elongated bloomer-pants made of layered ruffles, and a sheer flowing overcoat, all in orange. This exotic outfit remained orange when the black lights came on but her skin turned a mahogany so dark as to sometimes almost appear black. Soon a troop of forest creatures began to arrive, each one locomoting in a way more unlikely than the last. Their costumes were uniform in color and design, with bold symmetrical patterns resembling Rorschach blots on the torso, which seemed to emphasize the buttocks, as happens in nature with some primates. The troop wore oversized yellow wigs that resembled manes or surprising topknots. The innocent exited at their arrival, but one assumed she watched from a safe distance in the forest as the creatures ran riot over the sculptures, climbing into them, hanging from them, etc. After Underhill appeared (in another urban fashion statement, on stilts naturally), and summoned the forest creatures, which exited after her, Schultz as the innocent reappeared and reclined again under the sculptures. There was a lot to like here - a story, a set piece, killer costumes and lighting effects, but in our book, no dance as yet. We hope they keep working on it.
By Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas vicnelsa@earthlink./net (:divend:)