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Danceworks DanceLAB’s “Get It Out There “presentations offer the excitement of risky performances by stylistically diverse area artists. Two separate hour-long shows, 15 works in all, were presented in the intimate Danceworks Studio last Saturday for about the cost of two drinks at happy hour. It’s an invaluable service to the community: a chance for experienced artists to test new ideas, emerging artists to introduce themselves and audiences to remember the crucial role we play at any live performance. Here, we’re invited to write our thoughts, on forms to be given to the artists, during the short, quietly lighted pauses that follow each act. The breaks create a welcome meditative rhythm to the evening.
Show A: Posy Knight and Kirk Thompson captured the still reverberating shock of 9/11 by shifting from a tragicomic dance-mime about the intricacies of an intimate partnership to a spoken collage of excerpts from phone calls by partners and colleagues inside and outside the towers after the first plane struck. Kim Miller held poses resembling Egyptian hieroglyphs against initially indecipherable fragments of a Richard Pryor monologue that grew legible before disintegrating again; the subject: endurance. With respect and insight, Catey Ott Thompson portrayed St. Joan of Arc as God’s brave, full-bodied, kiss-blowing showgirl. Choreographer Gina Laurenzi used mirrors as partial backdrop for gorgeous dancing by Elizabeth Roskopf and Desmond Cotton, apart and together, in public and in private. Roskopf also danced an original solo. Knight returned with Angela Algrim and Kyra Boprie as endearing clowns in tap shoes, sliding and falling like babies attempting to walk. Kristin Reidelberger and Devin Settle presented smart modern dance translations of romantic Chopin and Schubert.
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Show B: Trapped inside a large inflated parachute, Piper Morgan Hayes appeared in shadow on its silken outside and, simultaneously, in sonogram-like video projected on the theatre wall. She’s in a womb, wanting out and, once out, independence. Emily Landry’s choreography for Madeline Walker displayed this child’s remarkable talent in touching fashion. Angel Alexander bared her soul in an explosive solo. Patti Smith and Maya Angelou provided a feminist soundtrack for dancers Kayla Flentje and Maggie Sear. Women’s friendships informed Michaele Chaigneau-Norton’s revealing dance for herself, Emily Bennet and Alicia Yang. Melissa Sue Anderson’s duet for Emily Landry and Kendra Kramas had an intriguing structure and distracting lighting. Emily Bartsch and Alexa Noll looked stylish in their formal duet. Zach Schorsch did a psychic striptease.
