Google 
 Wednesday, March 16, 2005  
Feedback
 dance listings 
  Home
Archives
New This Week
8 days
Art
Books
Dance
Food
Listings
Movies
Music
News and Features
Television
Theater
Astrology
Classifieds
Adult
Hot links
Personals
Adult Personals
Work for us
 
I am        seeking
   
Zip/Postal Code
  

The Providence Phoenix

The Providence Phoenix

The Providence Phoenix
The Portland Phoenix
FNX Radio Network
   

Support system
Island Moving Co.’s latest moves
BY JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ

Island Moving Co. has always been adventurous about outdoor performances in the summer but, inevitably, as happened in July, the skies open and part or all of a dance concert is cancelled. This proved particularly unfortunate for the premiere of artistic director and choreographer Miki Ohlsen’s new work Surrender, because the audience had to flee pounding rain before it could be danced the first night of the program. Subsequent audiences did see it and raved about it. An opportunity to catch it indoors with a kinetic light sculpture by Robert Kieronski, designed specifically for the ballet, rolls around next Thursday (October 30) at Rhode Island College’s Sapinsley Hall.

In September at Waterplace Park, Rolando Troconis and Danielle Genest presented their incredibly powerful pas de duex before hundreds of WaterFire enthusiasts, to an urgent a cappella choral piece by Gustav Mahler. The dancers come on stage in sheer light blue pajama-like pants and tops, with dark blue (for him) and fiery red underwear (for her) underneath. Troconis dances in jerky frenetic movements at one corner of the stage; Genest dances in slow, gliding steps on the opposite corner. They don’t look at each other, even after she goes to where he’s crouched on the floor and holds him, then leans in to him.

Attempts to enfold each other, to offer support to each other, alternate with moving in their own private worlds. At one point, Troconis gently lifts Genest and then she him. But then they move away once again. It’s like two people in a relationship, trying over and over to hang on to their individuality while still making efforts to connect as well. Eventually she breaks through his reserve and, in the final moments of the piece, he holds her above his head, then lets her down onto his shoulder, where she stays as they turn slowly round and round. The emotional impact of this duet is quite remarkable.

"It’s about any person you’ve helped to get on their own feet," Ohlsen explained at a run-through last week. "She tries to support him until he can maintain his own weight."

But that’s the second movement of Surrender. What about the first section, with eight dancers pairing off in various permutations to a techno mix of Sarah MacLachlan’s "Silence"? There are nervous gestures, rubbing hands up and down on the front of one’s thighs; tricky, upside-down carries by the male partners of the females; men lifting men and women lifting women; a parade of fierce friezes; twisting, puzzle-like floor partnerings; and even some anguished writhing. Yet, despite the push-shove frenzy around her, Genest emerges as a calm point. And for Ohlsen, it was thinking about how to reach that calmness in the midst of our hectic everyday lives that was the catalyst for the dance.

"Even by the nature of how she moves, we see Genest as a different being," Ohlsen reflected. "We see how a person can affect other things. So, in the second part, she tries to drive Rolando into her state of mind, to get him to slow down. And she does."

Also on deck at RIC will be Colin Connor’s Recent Arrivals and Scott Putman’s Remembering the Air Along the Forgotten Path. Island Moving Co. premiered both pieces in New York. Putman’s is set to music from a CD called Sea and Bells by a band known as Rachel’s. Contemplative themes of isolation and reminiscence are played out as the dancers move around and past a strolling Mary Beth Murphy and then around Danielle Genest, the only one on point in the piece. It’s clear there’s a relationship between her character and Murphy’s, though it’s left ambiguous what that might be. Putman has said that he likes to explore ideas about time and space, and this dance does that on many levels.

Connor’s Recent Arrivals earned praise from the New York Times when IMC first performed it in May 2002 at the Merce Cunningham Studios. Set to Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, the piece uses eight dancers in costumes that suggest early 20th-century immigrant clothing. Watching a run-through last week, I was told that each dancer had imagined a life story for his or her particular character — they were reviewing their stories with each other just before they began the ballet.

The dancers walk on, carrying suitcases, looking around in apprehension and curiosity. The four couples partner in different combinations in strong, canon-like phrases, holding, then lifting and carrying, offering comfort to each other in turn. They run their hands along the side of their heads, they rub their temples — two of the women seem to break down completely. But always they reach out to each other and, at the end, they walk forward, as though looking out into their future. It’s a strong, impressive work.

Three solid dances from three creative choreographers. Don’t miss the chance to see them indoors.

Island Moving Co. will perform on Thursday, October 30 at 8 p.m. at Rhode Island College. Call (401) 456-8144.


Issue Date: October 24 - 30, 2003
Back to the Dance table of contents










home | feedback | masthead | about the phoenix | find the phoenix | advertising info | privacy policy

 © 2000 - 2005 Phoenix Media Communications Group