By Lewis J Whittington
For EXPLORE DANCE
An Israeli dance festival unofficially took place a mid-November weekend
in Philly, with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company performing at
the Dance Celebration series in the Annenberg Center on the University
of Pennsylvania campus, while across town, Philly's own Koresh Dance
Company was dancing their home season program before embarking on an
European tour.
Roni Koresh, born and raised in Israel and was a
member of Batsheva 2 Dance Company there before he emigrated to the US
in the 80s and danced with the Alvin Ailey Company. He established
Koresh Dance in Philly in 1991, is the company's director-choreographer
creating a repertory of over 40 works. Koresh's choreography is often
infused with Israeli cultural aesthetic.
Kibbutz artistic
director-choreographer Rami Be'er has created over 50 choreographies for
the company. Be'er was a cellist before studying dance with KCDC
founder Yehudit Arnon, and became artistic director in 1996. While in
Philly, the directors and dancers got together for a dance cultural
exchange, and morning dance class, at Koresh studios.
Seeing
both companies in the same week it was interesting to take note of first
how aesthetically different they are, despite their shared national
origins, but to note the similarity in the esprit of the dancers and the
commitment of the companies to their particular artistry.
Koresh
was just back from tour stops in the mid-Southwest and rehearsing one
of Roni Koresh's 2009-piece "ev.o.lu.tion". It is one of Koresh's
long-form works that is technically very different from many of Koresh's
pieces in its physical demands on the dancers.
In its gripping
opening, Asya Zlatina lurched across the stage in writhing, isometric
development; the body coming out of the primordial (in this case) dance
ooze. Then the natural dance selection began as the ensemble moved in
various stages of evolved states- hunched over or in deep second
position plies, clawing over the terrain and at each other.
The
origin of species is a big theme, but Koresh's choreography escapes
thematic bloat by being humorous and in key spots, simply poetic. Koresh
doesn't get literal more than he shows a mosaic of movement ideas with
an invisible thread of physical expressions of our evolution, bouncing
from animalistic impulses and discovered musicality.
Cast off
articles of clothing indicate time lapses on the evolutionary scale. And
even in the modern segments, Koresh puts refined behavior next to
movement that has more bestial beginnings. How evolved are we, as we
still awkwardly try to communicate in all ways intimately,
intellectually and philosophically?
Standout solo work from
every Koresh dancer and the scrambled precision of the ensemble phrases.
Among the standouts in Koresh's uniquely primal duets- Krysta
Montrone- Joe Cotler, Micah Geyer- Melissa Rector and Robert Tyler-
Kevan Sullivan.
In another segment, men as behaved mechanized
men, but flashing apish elegance in Boss suits instead of animal skins.
The women also looked happy doing sprightly dances in flowy dresses, but
they have much more to say in sweaty dance togs, dancing full out with
liberation and not as patriarchal objects.
Ev.o.lu.tion had an
unnecessary intermission, but it hardly diminished the sustained
performance level of this company. And I would be remiss if I didn't
mention the entre act of Melissa Rector's Koresh Youth Ensemble in a
group piece called "Debris" set to music by Armand Amar, showing their
pulsing unity and esprit.
The next night on the Annenberg stage
Rami Be'er's "If At All" was, if not stylistically like Koresh,
nonetheless also packed with fluid ideas, unpredictable movements and
many choreographic morphs. An opening solo by Shani Cohen was a volcanic
tour de force that set the theme of cryptic content and swarthy
physicality. The music was a sound mashup of everybody from Max Richter
to the Nine Inch Nails.
The men sweep on bare-chested with
black Samurai skirts they roll in lines and proceed with pulsing unified
rituals. Single dancers break out and execute convulsive layouts, judo
kicks and dance flagellation. The men and women are segregated.
The
women, in dance tunics and togs, dancing in separate spotlights, are
just as athletic as the men, but without much choreographic variation.
On balance, this struck as ponderous and Be'er could strengthen these
segments with more choreographic invention. Before the sexes join
forces, Be'er ponders in choreographic neutral. Meanwhile, Be'er's
dynamic lighting design keeps giving us dramatic stage pictures.
Suddenly,
there is a female dancer in a flesh body stocking being flung around
and lifted by the men; her hair completely hides her face. It seems like
an outtake from "The Rite of Spring," but she is paired with a male who
has broken away from the ritualized group. The couple leads in Be'er's
series of hypnotic and completely electrifying male-female duets. Each
couple part of a dreamlike flow and intimacy, past just sex, against
bleak intrusion of incongruously menacing group movement behind them.
One
vignette has the soundtrack of people screaming with sirens and
gunshots going off. The dancers drop as if stricken but vault back up in
the rhythmic group line, symbolic of lineage, solidarity and survival.
The
ending tableau with the men and women in waist sashes, checked skirts
and ropey tops, is a visual mystery, but they come together in for
joyous communals with everyone dancing amok. Be-er's narrative threads
just seem to evaporate frustratingly, before there is any lucid line,
but the visceral impact of this work and the performance level
throughout was deservedly met by the lusty applause of the audience.
