GayCityNews 2008
Excuse Me if I Dance
By: LORI ORTIZ
11/21/2007
Aaaah Chopin. His capriciousness inspired Dwight Rhoden to create "Dear Frederic," the new dance that opened Complexions' two-week Joyce season November 13. A silvery upstage curtain gives the feel of a Romantic era drawing room. There we meet ten incredible movers of varied sizes, shapes, and, yes, complexions.
The company's homey style, if virtuosic, is never precious. If it's possible to have ballet without the formality, they have done it here.
To speedy swiveling pelvises, rippling torsos, and conversational hand and arm gestures, Henry Wong Doe plays a tripped version of a piano nocturne. The dancers respond, adjusting mid-step to the intentional breaks in the melody.
Leave it to this crew not to give us pure pleasure.
Amid the false starts, clowning contorted figures, and fast and jagged transitions, there are gorgeous duets, double duets, and groupings. Five males endearingly salute the women, who exasperatedly wipe their foreheads. A dancer partially draws the semi-see-through upstage curtain in the simple but imaginative brightly lit set.
"Could we have something slower?", says Juan Rodriguez as if he's at a piano bar. An allegro follows. Then Bryan Arias is the spectacular center of a V formation. He's the heart of this, flashing whimsy when he clowns or momentarily conducts the music.
But the music resides in Clifford Williams, who moves with the slightest suggestion of harlequin, and not for laughs.
Desmond Richardson and Drew Jacoby dance William Forsythe's pas de deux from "Herman Schmerman." Jacoby is solid and Richardson lithe, nuanced, and meltingly fluid. They wear short, satiny, fringed skirts by Gianni Versace.
Richardson works the stage. At one point he stands behind Jacoby and holds her elbows, her head shifts between her raised arms. She holds her own. The duet has its cumbersome lifts, and its drama.
Richardson embodies the music by frequent Forsythe collaborator Thom Willems, turning Jacoby on pointe in the end.
"The Hardest Button to Button" is a solo by Ailey dancer Abdur-Rahim Jackson to music by the White Stripes. Christina Dooling wags her long, stick-straight hair and flings her arms, legs, and torso in an idiosyncratic freestyle ritual.
She wears, of course, black and white striped unitard, and rocks in place. It's infectious and appealingly adolescent. The young and strong Dooling is perfect for the part.
As Richardson spins awesomely in the 2000 "Lament" Rhoden made for him, the sweat flies off his torso. Under bright spots that create a zigzag pattern above, Richardson's space-eating curvilinear arms define purgatorial perimeters.
In pauses, he faces upstage, while we admire the arc of his leg raised to the 5:57 position. His end is a benediction as he looks to the heavens. The tearjerker "Lament" is by far the evening's high point.
The leaden "Bound" is wonderfully evocative, by Nicolo Fonte to Vivaldi's "Stabat Mater" and Handel opera music. In Fonte's impressive choreography, Juan Rodriguez and Clifford Williams duet, while upstage Sabra Perry steps gingerly, extending a flexed foot toward us.
The others take up this tentative gesture later at the foot of the stage. In Korsch's eerie, dim lighting, they dance in follow spots wearing drab, loose-fitting, torn Ts and shorts. The new "Bound" is performed with mystery, interesting musicality, and esprit de corps.
Also on the program is a sweet duet for Christina Portelow and Arias to Rufus Wainwright - from program B, "The PEACE Project," at the Joyce through November 25.
To end, the company of 12 performs Rhoden's musical-theater-style 2004 tribute to Nina Simone, "Pretty Gritty Suite," a bright and showy valentine for the dancers too. Each, with personality and style, offers parting joy.
It's a bit sentimental, but totally addictive. The fun gets out of hand in a spanking incident.
This is the 21st century. And this is a company that makes no apologies for dancing in a theater, a company that kisses the sky.