SPITTING IMAGE: A Collaboration of Dance and Photography Featuring 8 Works by Starr Foster Dance Project with Music by Joey Luck
A Dance Review by Julinda D. Lewis
At: TheatreLAB’s The Basement, 300 East Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23219
Performances: Friday, January 12th @8pm. Saturday, January 13 @3pm, 5pm, 7pm. Sunday, January 14th @ 3pm, 5pm.
Ticket Prices: $15 General Admission. $25 Opening Night Performance and Reception with Artists. Order tickets @ http://www.browpapertickets.org
Info: (804) 304-1523 or http://www.starrfosterdance.org
As part of an ongoing mission to collaborate with other artists, Starr Foster Dance Project (SFDP) has started the new year with a unique collaboration with eight photographers whose work inspired the eight short dances that share their titles. Eight intriguing and very different photographs by photographers both local and long distance hung in the lobby of TheatreLAB’s The Basement, and on opening night six of the eight lens artists were on sight to share their work and experience with the dancers and audience.
Undulating Reflections, a work for six dancers, was inspired by a photograph by Dennis Lieberman. Set to the somewhat anxiety-provoking music Surveillance by Canadian industrial band Noise Unit and with gorgeous deep blue costumes (tank tops with briefs for the men and ruffled skirts for the women) designed by Johann Stegmeir, Undulating Reflections lingers sumptuously in weight sharing, leaning, moments of touching and almost touching.
Elizabeth Whitson’s single flower, Beauty in the End, was the inspiration for a duet, performed Friday night by Erick Hooten and Heather Rhea O’Connor, to an original score by Joey Luck. Hooten, large and muscular, and O’Connor, deceptively delicate-looking, sustained an ethereal, floating quality throughout, supported by what I think was a cello that anchored Luck’s somewhat somber score. They remained connected and intimate, even with people watching from two sides as the black box space was set up as a traverse or corridor stage. The final image was of the two dancers stretched out on the floor, Hooten’s face hoovering slightly over O’Connor as the two seemed to share the same breath. The blue theme was continued with O’Connor’s long, soft dress and Hooten’s matching tank with solid long pants, both designed by Foster.
The mood changed considerably with Find the Light, a work inspired by Clare Midock’s photo, which featured a chair and her young daughter. Anna Branch, O’Connor, Angela Palminsano, and Brittany Powers initially took turns dancing on and around a sturdy wooden chair, each revisiting and modifying the phrases of her predecessor. They draped themselves over the chair, hung over the back, slithered under it, sat near it, focused on a mysterious mission as a blinding bright light focused on them. Find the Light is set to a hauntingly beautiful cello solo by Peter Gregson, and Johann Stegmeir designed the orange ombre jumpsuits.
The first half of the program closed with the delightful, somewhat humorous Searching, inspired by Henrietta Near’s optical illusion photograph of people taking pictures in Maymont Park under the watchful eyes of a superimposed cat. Returning to the blue and black color scheme (with costumes by Foster and original music by Luck), the six dancers explored variations of searching. One moved a chair close to and stared directly at a member of the audience. Others sought out new spaces, sitting in chairs along the wall with the audience in the all-too-brief snippet of choreography.
A brief intermission provided a welcome opportunity to revisit the photographs for the upcoming choreography. (It would have been helpful to have a moment of lighting between each dance to give the audience a chance to check the titles and connect them with the photographs as well.)
The second half of the program began with what turned out to be one of my personal favorites of the evening, a voluminous skirt solo, Saltwater Bones, inspired by the underwater photography of Cristina Peters. O’Connor’s white skirt, designed and constructed by Foster, performed doubly duty as costume and prop. Sometimes it billowed out gracefully, other times it appeared to entrap her. At the end, I found myself releasing the breath I did not realize I had been holding. Luck also created original music for this solo.
Angela Douglas’ photograph Flock (yes, it is a photograph of birds) manifested as a bouncy quartet (Davis, Hooten, Palminsano, and Powers) filled with quick, sharp movements in stark contrast to the sustained phrases of preceding dances. The accompanying music is, somewhat ironically, titled Nature Fights Back, performed by prepared pianist Hauschka (nee Volker Bertelmann). Foster designed the black tank tops and blue/teal pants for this delightful dance thin which the rhythm and flow was briefly interrupted by somewhat awkward preparation for a group lift.
Pas de Doe proved to be a delightful play on words, a duo inspired by Mike Harrell’s photo of two deer. Branch and O’Connor (who appeared I six of the eight dances on the opening night program) started off like two bulls sizing up one another in the glaring side lights, but by the end they were dancing in unison and looked as if they were about to take flight. Stegmeir designed their soft salmon-colored tunics and white pants, and the pounding music, Hephaestus, was by Chris Cutler and Thomas DiMuzio.
The program closed with Hanakapai Falls, inspired by a stunning painting of a Hawaiian waterfall. Rachel DeFrank’s deep colors, marked by shades of blue, green, and purple, were printed on a metal plate. Branch, Davis, and Hooten resurrected Foster’s tilting movements, seen earlier in Undulating Reflections, with hints of classical lines and use of space in the partnering. Stegmeir’s blue gray pallet and the music, Sequence (four) by Warren Zielinski Magdalena Filipczak, Laurie Anderson, Richard Harwood and Peter Gregson, both supported and enhanced the concept of waterfall, making for a beautiful and satisfying conclusion to an evening of contemporary dance in Richmond.
Julinda D. Lewis is a dancer, teacher, and writer who was born in Brooklyn, NY and now lives in Eastern Henrico County.
Photo Credits (clockwise, starting at top left):
- Dancers Erick Hooten, Anna Branch and Ryan Davis leap in a new work Inspired by Rachel DeFrank’s photograph of “Hanakapai Falls” Photo Credit: Doug Hayes
- Dancers Heather Rhea O’Connor and Erick Hooten in a duet inspired by Elizabeth Whitson’s photograph, “Beauty in the End” Photo Credit: Doug Hayes
- Dancer Kate Neal descends in a new work inspired by Cristina Peter’s photograph “Saltwater Bones” Photo Credit: S. Foster
- Dancers Heather Rhea O’Connor and Erick Hooten share an embrace in “Beauty in the End” inspired by a photograph by Elizabeth Whitson Photo Credit: Doug Hayes
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