Sabatino and Barbara Verlezza were the creative and artistic force behind Dancing Wheels from 1994 to 2003. Now DW has outsourced its choreographic chores to other local choreographers and the Verlezzas have stayed in town, teaching modern dance at Kent State University, Akron University, Cleveland School of Dance, continuing their creative work as Verlezza Dance. We knew they had done some performances in Kent but their first Cleveland area show was scheduled for last weekend (12/10/04 and 12/11/04) at Shaker Heights Community Building. We made a point of getting to it, expecting something low to the ground production-wise, but interested to see who was dancing for the Verlezzas, what their new repertory looked like, and relying on the Verlezzas' professionalism for a good show.

Shaker Heights Community Building shares a parking lot with Shaker Heights Main Library. Seating was folding chairs, which made for poor sight lines. But for a run of only two shows the tech crew, director/ lighting designer Marcus Dana and assistant Carl Walling, had done a lot with the space. Dance linoleum was taped over the carpet and large speakers comfortably filled the room with the recorded music. They'd brought in a lot of lighting equipment for a small space and the extensive lighting plot came off with only one hitch, a delay between dances for replugging.

Excerpts from old dances, wearing well, included Tammoriata (1984), Tobi Roppo (1986), and Story of My Death (2003). We recognized Tracy Pattison who had been a dancer in Dancing Wheels but otherwise it was all new faces to us, many of them new to dance. "What did you think of my students?" Barbara asked us after the concert. Then she laughed: "Pretty good considering they just learned to do their laundry 74 days ago." We agreed. Her students looked very good indeed, considering. Throughout the concert they'd suffered none of the embarrassments common to new dancers; they looked good in the dives and slides that the Verlezzas use from May O'Donnell technique.

Pattison, however, comes across as a completely different species. Her sculpted limbs and trunk were tightly integrated; she effortlessly held center stage for her solo, Story of My Death; even in the close quarters her face showed nothing but an easy rapport with her audience and her fellow performers. She dances with passion and control.

New repertoire (six of the nine dances in the concert were completely new to us) included a premiere, Coat Tales. In it the Verlezzas dance a pair of solos to Willie Nelson. There's always an emotional component to the Verlezzas' work, usually danced to serious music; but they can let their hair down, too, both in choice of music and in terms of the formal restraint customary to modern dance. Here it's the grand motif of country music, "losin' you". It was interesting to see this new aspect of the Verlezzas.

The Verlezzas continue to work with variously-abled clienteles. Since February, 2000 the Verlezzas have been teaching at the Euclid Adult Training Center for senior adults with developmental and physical disabilities. Before intermission they brought this clientele onstage to perform Angel (2002), a simple, stylized waltz.

After the intermission, Pattison and Sabatino danced a trio with wheelchair dancer Chris Vartorella. Weaves and spins took up the first half of the dance, fast and hypnotic like Liberty Horses at the circus, then big exercise balls came out and the two standups held forth with feats of derring do. "Ooh! Ahh!" said the audience. It really was hard stuff, diving and rolling across the stage on the exercise balls. Then Vartorella, who can barely stand without support, came out of her chair and launched herself, landing safely with a little help from Sabatino.

Despite the non-theater venue and a cast of mostly student dancers, the Verlezzas had put on a clean, tight show. We're awed and inspired by their work with other-abled dancers, but we want to see more or what they and the May o'Donnell technique can do with and for accomplished performers like Traci Pattison. from Cool Cleveland contributors Victor Lucas and Elsa Johnson (:divend:)