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Andrew Brader and Ashley Mayeux in Amazing Grace;
Photo by Bill Hebert
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Dance Affiliates presents
NextMove opened their new season at their new home, The Prince Theater in
Philadelphia, with Complexions Contemporary Ballet, the company founded
by former Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater dancers Dwight Rhoden and Desmond
Richardson.
It was an evening of diverse dance styles that both honored and
challenged traditional forms. The music traveled from Bach and Vivaldi to
Metallica, with stops along the way by Odetta, Prince, Jimmy Scott, and the
traditional “Amazing Grace.” By the end of the evening the audience was
thrilled and almost as exhausted as the dancers.
The evening begins
with Ballad Unto... in which seven couples swirl across the stage in pairs
and triplets. The Balanchine influence is apparent, classical line and
movements, and yet it is so not Balanchine, a total awareness of the dancer’s
body as anatomical sketch—all muscle and sinew and strength. The bare chested
men preen, the ballerinas primp, as they come together and part. This is
classical ballet and yet it isn’t. An awkward knee, a slight twist interrupts
the smooth flow and makes us pay attention.
While the first act
is classical, the second explores a variety of forms beginning with the modern
athleticism of Gone (dancers: Kelly Marsh IV, Greg Blackmon, and Timothy
Stickney) set to Odetta’s “He Had a Long Chain On.” The mood turns sultry in Cryin’
to Cry Out (dancers: Melissa Anduiza, Nehemiah Spencer, Jillian David, and
YoungSil Kim) to Jimmy Scott’s vocals, followed by Choke (dancers: Doug
Baum and Addison Ector) set to Vivaldi, then Terk Lewis Waters, who towers over
the other dancers when he is with the company, here, dressed in red, undulates
across the stage to a ballad by Prince. The act ends with an excerpt from Testament,
a dance of passionate longing set to “Amazing Grace.”
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| Group image from Strum; Photo by: Bill Hebert |
For the last act, Strum,
the dancers, clad in metallic silver, move mechanistically across the stage as
Timothy Stickney struts and stumbles around and through them to the seemingly
endless music of the heavy metal band Metallica. Whenever there is a lull, a
darkness with silence, the audience claps not realizing there is more to come. It’s
a compelling performance that leaves the dancers almost as breathless as the
dancers.
What makes this
program additionally special was that it marks the inaugural season for Dance Affiliates
in their new home. Founded in 1979 by Randy Swartz, Dance Affiliates started
out at the Walnut Street Theater, then, in 1983 moved to the Annenberg Center
for the Performing Arts, and now after 32 years it has relocated again to
Center City Philadelphia.
