DOGTOWN DANCE THEATRE PRESENTS THE 2021 RICHMOND DANCE FESTIVAL LIVE AND IN-PERSON
A Dance Review by Julinda D. Lewis
At: Dogtown Dance Theatre, 109 West 15th Street, RVA 23224
Performances: Week One: June 11-12, 2021. Week Two: June 18-19. Live and streamed on Dogtown STREAM.
Ticket Prices: In-Person Tickets: $20 General; $10 Students. Virtual Access $39.99 annually (Free Trial currently in effect. https://www.dogtowndancetheatre.com/dogtownstream)
Info: (804) 230-8780 or dogtowndancetheatre.com
WEEK 2 REPERTORY:
Perceived Threat by Leah Glenn Dance Theatre (Williamsburg, VA). Choreography: Leah Glenn. Music: Max Richter.
Marathon by Trybe Dance Collective (a safe space for emerging artists). Choreography: Danielle Lyndsay. Asst. Jaedyn Cameron, Daneya Celestin, Kendall Parker, Chloe Ruffin, Mia Watkins. Music: “Marathon (In Roses)” by Gem Club.
Equinox a film by Jonah Haber
Vacancy by Baran Dance (Charlotte, NC). Choreography: Audrey Baran. Music: Nicholas Jaar.
Kalika Stuthi by Sri Sai Dance Academy. Choreography: Sarada Jammi. Music: Satyagopal Tumuluri.
A Mother’s Soliloquy a film by Cameron Kostopoulos. Directed & written by Cameron Kostopoulos. Music: Prateek Rajagopal.
One hundred years flicker; I kiss the Snow by Jenna Beardsley (Richmond, VA). Choreography: Jenna Beardsley. Videography: Taylor Bonadies. Music: “Flora” by Elysia Crampton ft. Jeremy Rojas & “When I Rule the World” by Liz
desasosiego. by Aina Lanas (Spain). Direction, Choreography & Writing: Aina Lanas.
Retentions by CLAVES UNIDOS (Richmond, VA). Choreography: Kevin LaMarr Jones with Alyssa Frye, Diamond Hudson & the performers.
Salad Days by Sara Hook. Choreography by Sara Hook. Music: “Anfangs wollt’ ich fast Verzagan (At First I Almost Despaired)” by Robert Schumann
Canis Major an award-winning film by Charli Brissey. Direction, Choreography & Animation: Charli Brissey.
CURRENT by Company | E (Washington, D.C.). Choreography: Maddie Hanson. Music: “Midnight” by Kyle Preston, “Behind Every Decision” by Yehezkel Raz, “Dark Tension: by Kyle Preston & “Hibernation” by Pete James Johnson.
The Richmond Dance Festival came back for a second week with all-new programming. Like the first week, the program consisted of a mix of live performances and dances created on and for video. There were some truly outstanding performances, but this time there seemed to be some unevenness in genres, execution, and programming.
Leah Glenn set the bar high with the opening work, Perceived Threat. Jamal Story started standing on one leg, with the other suspended in the air somewhere in the region of his ear while he turned. It brought to mind images of Fred Benjamin and Eleo Pomare, two icons of American modern dance for those of a certain age. The work itself, a duet Story performed with partner Kylie LeWallen, is contentious and gravity-defying, and marked by some of the strongest technique I’ve seen in quite some time.
Another highlight of the program was Sara Hook’s zany and breathless duet Salad Days. The title is taken from a Shakespearean reference to the “salad days” or heyday of youth. Throughout most of the dance, Rachel Rizzuto counted aloud from 1-10, varying the tempo and accent and sometimes counting to 12. Occasionally her voice waned, her partner wearied of the pace, only to rally and rejoin the game. For some reason, at one point, Rizzuto takes off her shirt and stands topless while her partner politely averts his eyes, but humor doesn’t always have to make sense to make us laugh. The program included six more live dances and four dance films.
The Trybe Dance Collective’s group work, Marathon, featured a troop of young dancers with tight buns and purple leotards. Though it is constructed of basic studio moves – bridges, contractions hinges – it brought to mind Balanchine’s “Serenade,” as it, too, was created as a showcase for young dancers and an introduction to the choreographer’s technique for the audience.
In Audrey Baran’s Vacancy ritual, repetition, and meditative poses were set against a soundscape of words, music, conversation, and children’s voices. A program note included the question, “How do we navigate or occupy the space and time left behind after a loss, and should we?” I wasn’t quite sure what was happening, but I couldn’t take my eyes away from the riveting motion.
Ameya King performed the classical Indian piece, Kalika Stuthi, on Saturday (Manaswi Gonela danced the role on Friday), and I found it interesting that the song sounded familiar as it was written by the choreographer’s father, Satyagopal Tumuluri. (It reminded me of a song I heard on a segment of Rhoda Grauer’s 1993 Dancing video series, but I couldn’t find any music credits for the series.) King’s long bejeweled braid and ankle bells helped accentuate the polyrhythms as each and every part of her body danced: eyes, fingers, hands, arms, shoulders, torso, hips, legs, feet – each subdued to the discipline of her craft. It was possible for one unfamiliar with the genre to follow parts of the story, even if we had no knowledge of the demands of the technique.
The second half of the program began with Jenna Beardsley’s solo, One hundred years flicker; I kiss the Snow, featuring the specter-like figure of a gauze-covered dancer on stage and a grainy black and white film on the screen behind her. The work ends with a bizarre juxtaposition of the waif-like figure – is it human or human-like; is it living or no longer living – moving to the empowering anthem “When I Rule the World.” The unusual title comes from a line in Scottish singer SOPHIE’s song, “Is It Cold in the Water?” – the same artist who produced “When I Rule the World” – and the work is dedicated to the mysterious artist who identified as a trans woman and tragically died after a fall from a balcony earlier this year.
Kevin LaMarr Jones’ Retentions featured a multi-generational cast of women and a toddler girl dancing to music fired with the passion of Spanish guitar. The little one tentatively ventured from her mother’s arms to explore the striding steps of the other women and took a few test strides of her own. One woman moved alone, slowly traversing the back of the space, emphasizing a sense of being along but together. Like much of Jones’ work, Retentions speaks of history and geography and cultural diffusion.
The program closed with Company | E’s CURRENT, a complex work that is at once overly long, ambiguous, and committed. A section that dealt with the acquisition of an air fryer was hilarious while hammering home its point about unnecessary consumption. But I will be covering this company more in-depth next week when they return for an entire evening of works from their WARMER series.
By far, my favorite of the films was Aina Lanas’ desasosiego (Restless). Lanas, described in the program as a “reference for urban/contemporary dance in Spain,” provided an immensely entertaining film featuring four women in deconstructed suits entertaining themselves – and their audience – by playing with and tasting lemons. At some point, their jackets and pants fall away, and there is even a moment of flamenco, of course. [https://vimeo.com/486618048]
Jonah Haber’s film, EQUINOX, featured a woman wearing a black dress walking in a geodesic dome. The work is filled with many structures and has a sci-fi feel. Cameron Kostopoulos’ film, A MOTHER’S SOLILOQUY, was a depressing tale of addiction. A crumbling room of mirrors and broken glass reflected a woman’s rapid deterioration, and I was outraged that this film closed out the first half of the program. Near the end of the second act, Charli Brissey’s award-winning animated film, CANIS MAJOR, explored a writer navigating through a severe case of writer’s block with the help of their dog. The writer contemplates the relationship between dancing and surviving the end of the world. [https://www.charlibrisseyisananimal.com/canis-major-2019]
All-in-all, Weekend Two was marked by diversity and variety, yet it lacked the visceral and artistic impact, the “wow” factor of Weekend One.
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