DANCE: FORM AND FEELING<br/>
Work by the late Ulysses Dove hits NJPACDANCE: FORM AND FEELINGDANCE: FORM AND FEELINGDANCE: FORM AND FEELING<br/>
Work by the late Ulysses Dove hits NJPAC<br/>
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 10/13/06<br/>
BY KARYN D. COLLINS<br/>
DANCE WRITER<br/><br/>
	The contemporary ballet company Complexions is known for many things.<br/><br/>
It is the creative home to one of the most American virtuoso dancers - Desmond
Richardson, who serves as Complexions co-director. Complexions, thanks to its other codirector,Dwight Rhoden, also has become synonymous with the current trend toward
sharp-edged, highly technical ballet. Call it the big bang style of ballet.<br/><br/>
Now, Complexions is set to become known for something else - as one of the few
repositories for the works by the late choreographer Ulysses Dove. The company will
premiere Dove's "Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven" when it appears at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at New Jersey Performing Arts Center's Victoria Theater in
Newark.<br/><br/>
	"For Desmond and myself, Ulysses Dove was one of the most inspiring choreographers
that we've ever worked with," Rhoden said during a telephone interview late last month.
	"We feel that his artistry and his philosophy and how he looked at dance really influenced
what we do. To be able to bring some of his work into the repertoire of our company is a
dream that we've been trying to achieve for a while."<br/><br/>
	Dove, a former member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (just like
Richardson and Rhoden), died in 1996 at age 49 from AIDS. But his relatively short
choreographic career yielded a small collection of works that led many critics to consider
	him a major dancemaker of the late 20th century.<br/><br/>
Dove created "Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven" in 1993 for the Royal Swedish
Ballet. The Complexions performance at NJPAC marks the first time the ballet has been
performed by an American company.<br/><br/>
	Rhoden and Richardson have a special tie to this particular work.
"We were his guinea pigs," Rhoden told a small audience invited to a showing last week
of excerpts from the Dove work. After they were all done with rehearsals for the Ailey
company, Dove would go into an empty studio to work out choreography on Rhoden and
Richardson. The resulting male duet is one of four sections of the ballet.<br/><br/>
	"I think one of the things that made Ulysses so special was that he felt dance was about
form but also about feeling," Rhoden said. "A lot of times we as dancers concentrate so
much on form that we forget the humanistic parts of dance that are important. You forget
there's a power you have as a performer.<br/><br/>
	"He made that clear that you really can change people's lives with your performance."<br/><br/>
In addition to the Dove ballet, the Complexions performances will also will feature the
world premiere of Rhoden's "Hissy Fits" and an excerpt from his "Anthem" trilogy.
Rhoden is well aware that some critics of the company and his own works question
Rhoden's hyper-physical style. But the choreographer is unapologetic. His style and his
company reflect the energy of a new generation, he said.<br/><br/>
	"I'm part of a generation of choreographers who are out there creating out of the
experience that we live in. We live in a fast and crazy atmosphere," Rhoden said. "Art
reflects the world we live in. That's what I'm doing. This is where we are as people."