At the ninth annual “Yes, Virginia
– Dance” performance at the Grace Street
Theater, eight companies from all over
Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and New
York were chosen to show their work.
The first piece, performed by Bowen
MacCauley Dance, is a brightly costumed
trio, complete with pigtails and fake
mustaches. Even though “Hannah, You
There?” was created as a nod to the Dada
movement, the dancer’s exaggerated
movements and the plinky piano music
conjure up images of Vaudeville.
In stark contrast to the first work,
Karen Reedy Dance’s “Path of Attraction”
is a dark, dynamic examination of tension
in a relationship. The two dancers
react to each other’s movements with
push-and-pull motions, yet they rarely
actually touch.
In “Thread,” Carli Mareneck appears
to be having sporadic fits of flailing, until
she repeats the series of movement on a
long fluttering strip of fabric at the back
of the stage. Here the movement looks
like she is in the water splashing herself.
Every time she emerges from the water,
she has pulled off a layer of clothing,
undergoing an aquatic metamorphosis.
Mareneck seems to be going through
the stages of life, and each character
appears less happy and agile. The final
transformation reveals a white, gauzeclad
Mareneck wearing a white mask,
perhaps representing a spirit.
K Dance presented a wondrous workout
spoof. Cheesy dance music booms while
the neon-costumed trio feels the burn.
Company director and performer Kaye
Weinstein Gary reads a short play titled,
“Workout,” by Wendy Wasserstein.
It is a monologue by an exercise instructor,
an overachieving super-mom who is
opening a chain of appliance stores, writing
a novel, producing and starring in a movie,
having her husband run for governor and
releasing an “exercise book for children
under six and their pets.”
“Ring,” by Jane Franklin Dance, sees
a large tribe manipulating each other
through bamboo hoops. The dancers’
movements are slow and sustained, with
pulses of fast jerkiness. A large bamboo
sphere is also passed around. The dancers
almost seem to worship or idolize the
sphere. According to the program notes,
the use of bamboo is an attempt by the
choreographer “to evoke the Vietnamese
countryside and to reflect and unify the
onstage interaction.”
Lacy & Shade’s “Dissolve” is apparently
“an abstract work looking at the
interplay between detachment and involvement
while exploring the emotional
complexities of Gorecki’s music.” This
intent would have been hard to glean
from the performance without the aid
of the program notes. The piece was
very blue, long, repetitive and verging
on self-indulgent.
Incidents Physical Theater performed
“Flipped,” a deliciously inventive piece
that had the audience roaring with
laughter. The dancer is suspended at the
hips between a wooden apparatus.
She is a beautiful girl in a long, blond
wig and a wide-skirted, fancy pink dress.
When she loses her balance and flips, her
legs are little demonic monster puppets.
The puppets fight with each other, and
the dancer repeatedly flips from being
upright to upside-down. Her drinking
makes her more apt to fall over. The
monsters finally plot to take her over
by giggling and shaking under her skirt
until she is felled for the last time.
The final work is very much worth
waiting for. Amaranth Contemporary
Dance’s “F.D.P.” ended the evening with
fast-paced, high-energy, clear and precise
dancing. Eight women, all wearing
simple black costumes, whip across the
stage, leap into each other’s arms and
throw each other around. Their lack of
emotion or expression and explosive
interactions make them seem like the
most basic components of energy.