We went to see Verb Ballets at Cleveland Museum of Natural History, never doubting that Verb would deliver "China's and perhaps the world's greatest dancer." Judging from our goose bumps and the reactions of the audience around us, Huang Dou Dou is indeed a wonderful and amazing dancer, as good in his way as Barishnikov was in his. If you're like the accountant we used to know who would always tune in after the big game to learn the final score, you can chalk up another win for Verb.

Saturday night might have been your last chance to see Huang west of Shanghai but the rest of the concert did not pale in comparison. Guest artist G. D. Harris drew loud applause for his very African Ostrich solo, Verb's own Jason Ignacio brought his hyper kinetic skills to Planet Soup and the Verb ensemble turned in winning performances of their most popular repertoire pieces. If you missed this concert, you really did miss a lot.

Things got under way with Man and the Echo (2002), an ensemble piece by Verb Artistic Director Hernando Cortez, whose program note casts this as a think piece by quoting from William Butler Yeats' Man and the Echo (1938). The choreography fulfills its stated task nicely with Mark Tomasic as the man who "stands in judgment of his soul...and sinks at last into the night." But we also do well to look at this as a choreographer's treatment of a familiar piece of music, Edvard Grieg's charming and accessible Holberg Suite. The music is supremely danceable and runs the gamut from fast and bright to deeply melancholic. Cortez has chosen from among the suite's sections and reordered them to suit his purposes.

The down mood and subdued blue lighting of Man and the Echo provided a nice foil for Huang's first virtuoso solo, which Verb's lighting designer Trad Burns lit in reds and golds.

Self-choreographed, Huang's choreography takes its title from inscriptions on oracle bones from the Shang Dynasty. The auspicious mysteries of China's ancient past are thereby evoked. As the lights come up at the beginning, Huang is seen standing very tall (although he is not a tall man), looking intently off stage right. He remains there for a few seconds, allowing the music (credited in the program notes to Tang Dun, played by Tibetan monks on ancient bronze temple bells from 500 BC) to set the scene.

What follows is a very striking acrobatic passage that takes him to center stage; perhaps seven moves including a backbend that he carried through 360 degrees. The audience burst into spontaneous applause; one could not help but be impressed. Taken one step at a time this passage included many familiar spectacular elements, but seen in performance for the first time the rapid-fire succession of very well executed steps left an indelible impression.

The fireworks were far from over. A center floor section included multiple turns rising from a crouch, opening to tour a la seconde and pulled into passé. Despite upright posture they're not classical turns; Huang goes from a low releve on the ball of his foot to his heel and back to releve, apparently a technique from Chinese classical dance or martial arts (Bubbling Well?). Not to say that Huang's turns are better or worse than classical turns, just different.

Important to note also that Huang's choreography and performance include a contemplative element that is in its way as arresting as the pyrotechnics. References to Shang Dynasty and ancient bronze temple bells are not mere window dressing. Huang takes you there.

Artists, entrepreneurs and snake oil salesmen will make all kinds of promises and predictions to try to move you. Our own prediction that 500 seat Murch Auditorium would surely sell out proved to be something of a cliffhanger; sales were slow until the last few days before the performance. We hear that Friday was the night Cleveland's Chinese-American community came out. Saturday certainly saw its share of cosmopolitan types: Asian Americans, Hindus and turbaned Sikhs. Yep, get out and support the local dance scene; it's fun and sometimes it's less local than you might expect.

No Verb performance would be complete without word of coming attractions. Executive Director Margaret Carlson promises that the company's program at Cain Park on Wednesday, July 27 will include Heinz Poll's Wings and Aires (1982). Longtime Ohio Ballet and Poll associate Jane Startzman will be setting the piece on Verb; she speculates that the Verb dancers may be able to perform Wings and Aires even better than Poll's ballet dancers were. Also on the program will be a new commissioned work by Cortez to Celtic music and a revival of MoonDogg, Cortez' rock and roll dance. So see for yourself or tune in here for the final score.
from Cool Cleveland contributor Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas vicnelsa@earthlink.net

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