I feel very lucky to have witnessed the terrific 40-minute performance created by choreographer Dawn Springer and composer Jon Mueller that was presented twice last Saturday evening in an ancient Bay View warehouse far off anybody’s beaten path. Even with address in hand, some friends from Danceworks and I had to hunt a good while to find the building, entrance and second floor room. It only added to the sense that this was something special.
We entered the white-walled, high-ceilinged room to find ballet dancer Janel Meindersee, recently retired from Milwaukee Ballet, quietly warming up on stage. Recorded music by Mueller cast a spell on the room with so-slowly-changing, low pitched chords—ancient is a word that comes to mind but maybe timeless is better; a carefully-chosen spell, in any case. No welcoming speech interrupted the meditative atmosphere. Instead, Meindersee took center stage and, perfectly poised, rose on point and balanced at astonishing length. Upstage, percussionist Mueller and pianist David Utzinger began their accompaniment. Suddenly, Meindersee exploded into a series of big balletic movements. She stopped as suddenly, waited for us to breathe and listen, and then executed a string of fast spins on point. Another pause, then another difficult string of big classical ballet moves deployed for sheer impact. We were moments into the dance and already I wanted to cheer.
No chance. Voices, drumming and piano chords suddenly split the air, almost terrifying at first. It was the start of a Herculean performance by Utzinger and Mueller of exactly repeated driving percussive patterns that continued and deepened in minimalist fashion over a very, very long time. The stamina and sheer muscle required to execute this score seems unbelievable. In a program note, Mueller tells us the music was written for a recording in 2010 but this, slightly reconfigured, is its first live performance.
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Enter dancers Rachel Malehorn, also retired from Milwaukee Ballet and dancing as powerfully as ever, and Annia Hidalgo, still a leading artist with that company and regularly flooring audiences with her skill and charisma. The muscles of the three dancers were as heartily tested in balances, spins and footwork: long stretches of speedy stepping on point in place. Springer put familiar ballet moves into unique, extreme constructions; every phrase was an event. Likewise, major groove shifts in the music arrived. Time flew. The end echoed the start: Hidalgo alone now—moving, listening, moving, listening.
