‘VCU Dance Now’ showcases wide variety of modern dance

Ten dancers fill the stage, while some overflow into the audience. Wearing tight textured white cotton tops and pants, they shake and manipulate each other slowly and methodically. The movement is acrobatic and explosive, repetitive and spacey.

This is dance department faculty member Scott Putman’s new work “Transcending Chronology,” which premiered this weekend at the “VCU Dance NOW” performance of faculty and student works.

Particle physics and string theory inspired Putman’s piece. The dancers vibrate energetically in a sort of patterned randomness.

Sets of white stairs add dimension, as does the dancers’ use of the aisle space around the audience. The dancers are grounded and breathy as they spin and sweep across the stage. Putman says the energy that shapes space and time also shapes choreography.

One of the standout student pieces was junior Hannah Frisch’s “Three’s Too Many.” Two girls playfully fight and roll around with a boy to quirky, almost circus-y music. The bright costumes add to the cartoonesque quality. The piece maintains an energetic pulse as the dancers lift, push and roll across each other with seamless effortlessness.

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, founding artistic director of the Urban Bush Women dance company, created the new work “Chalabati: Blessings of the Heart” for students during her fall 2006 teaching residency.

Nine blue jumpsuit-clad dancers intensely undulate their shoulders, stomp their feet, leap and clap. The dark lighting and airy costumes give the work a dreamlike quality.

The Gnawa people and music of Morocco were the inspiration for the piece, which alludes to their struggles and enslavement. The tribal music and synchronized movement portray the idea of ritual.

Jessica Wright uses five dancers to challenge the use of verbal communication in her earthy and poignant “Words Not Mandatory.” The piece employs the unusual use of mouth movements: opening wide, distorting their jaws, making biting motions and mouthing indiscernible words.

Delicate partnering and noisy breath holding are perfectly overlaid with distorted folk music and sounds of language being taught.

Solo works were also abundant in the show. In “Surge Protector” sophomore Burr Johnson, wearing a red track jacket, knee-high socks and hat, uses strong movements to explore the idea of power. Johnson’s lanky frame and flexibility are big assets in the solo, allowing him to enliven the whole space.

Kevin Jones choreographed “Infolkation” for dancer Samantha Crawford. The movement is thoughtful and folky, as Crawford dances to the spoken word “Legend of the Oot-kwa-tah” about three dancing girls who become stars in the sky.

Eliza Diener-Brazelle dances the intricate and twirling “Holly” by Victoria Metz. The piece’s swooping and falling contrast with its moments of stillness where Diener-Brazelle stares at the audience for an almost uncomfortably long time.

Junior Caryn “Charli” Brissey presented a film. “Tag America” made a social comment on the state of the environment.

Zombie dancers wear suits and neon makeup and dance to Aphex Twin in a sketchy back-lot in front of a graffitied wall.

A powerful poem is recited questioning authority and the future, as a girl dances exasperatedly in a large window of a small apartment.