Botanica Does Mother Nature Justice

As I walk away from The Joyce Theater thinking about the spectacle I have just witnessed, I have an epiphany: "Moses Pendleton is the kind of beacon that throws a heavy blanket of inspiration over dancers and non-dancers alike, bringing the world together with his art."  As my boyfriend walks out of the theaterwith me, he immediately tweets "Momix is amazing - go see their show!".  This non-dancer man is just as inspired as me as he rambles on and on about his favorite pieces of the night, the cool use of props and an interesting take on Mother Nature's gifts.  

Even though Mr. Pendleton tends to put the focus on the "show" factor in which the company showcases the brilliance of the concept as a whole (lights, costumes and props), the majority of the special effects enhance and showcase the dancers talents.  The moments when the dancers get to show off their full majesty are a little sparse for my liking, as it's evident that these dancers have beautiful classical technique bubbling under the surface. At times, I see the girls standing in an effortless turned out fifth with an uber-expressive port de bras that makes me want to see so much more "pure dance" without bigger than life headpieces/skirts (Marigolds) or hoses tethered to their arms (Night Crawlers).  Don't get me wrong, I think these pieces are one of a kind, but they also hold the dancers back from fully using their bodies.   Of course, the same thing that makes me say, "Hold back on the props because I want more dance!"  also makes me say "What a beautiful picture!" and "How original!"

Pendleton features soloists in a fashion that always entails extensive reliance on the props, but as mentioned before, these props tend to enhance the dance nd not detract from it.  In Glass Awakening, all of Sarah Nachbauer's expressive movements are replicated by a mirror wedge sloped toward the audience, the reflections

allowing everyone in the audience to see each image that's formed.  Ms. Nachbauer's reflection emphasizes the finesse and control in her movements as she duets with herself while executing slow dévelopées to the side and simple yet expressive port de bras.  Many times, she looks at her reflection and touches it with much love and admiration as if she is Narcisuss, while other times, she quickly looks away in fear.  The solo ends as she slowly sinks down behind the sloped wedge, the sound of a rippling pool of water echoing in our ears.  

Cassandra Taylor, performing Beaded Web, is another commendable soloist who uses her prop to bring her to new heights.  Ms. Taylor's turning capability is highlighted because she must continue turning throughout the entire piece in order to keep sets of beads that form trains down the sides of her body levitated and spinning - at times, the beads spin so fast they look like a helicopter's propellers or a humming bird's wings, almost non-existent.  Ms. Taylor takes down her hair from her ballet-bun at the very end of the piece as the lights fade out on her hair spinning with the beads creating the illusion that her hair and the beads are one.

These dancers are absolute firecrackers.  Quickly changing from ethereal, soft movement to chaîné-jetés across the stage with a spot so sharp one almost doesn't see the head turn, there is no telling what the next piece will bring.  The firecracker movement in New Green shows how brisk and precise these dancers are.  With only the the forearms and the bottom half of the legs glowing in an otherwise dark theater, three women dance a dance of shapes created by joining these glow in the dark pieces together.  A larger than life ballet dancer, formed with only the forearms of the dancers, does tondues with the fiercest cashew foot you have ever seen.  Flamingos are formed and peck at each other before quickly transforming into swans.  My personal favorite moment is when all of the glow in the dark parts come together to create a big sad face that quickly turns into a smiley face whose eye quickly winks at the audience before exiting the stage.

Momix's use of wind machines coupled with fabric is absolutely stunning!  The show begins with a windy winter storm and proceeds to a summer storm opening the second act.  In Frozen Land, dancers gradually rise up from beneath the silk-like material that is made to look like snow as the 'winter storm wind' creates ripples that run through it from one side of the stage to the other. Still fully entrenched, shapes of bodies run toward the blowing wind before vanishing in thin air.  The collaboration of wind, choreography and fabric creates a surreal Dali-esque picture; the fabric-masked dancers only slightly resemble humans.  When the dancers drop down to the ground from the force of the storm, the tall snow-ripples make it look as though there is no longer a body underneath the material, creating the illusion that the shape has magically

 disppeared. 

In Summer Storm, the thunderstorm soundtrack and undulating pieces of blue and white fabric create a severe storm before us, including a twin pair of tornadoes that two men create as they quickly spin the flag-like contraptions around themselves.  The female dancers make quick jeté passes in between the brewing storm clouds as they try to outrun the storm like fleeing birds.

Last Leaf is another praiseworthy creation involving the collaboration of material and multimedia.  Jon Eden gallantly carries on his back a white "leaf" as tall as the proscenium.  This leaf is tethered to Jon like a feather backpack on a Vegas showgirl. He has the ability to open and close the leaf so that it goes from being as wide as 75% of the stage to looking like a closed chinese fan.  The lights go down so that the multi-media is brightly projected only on the moving leaf. As he bends forward, the leaf ripples toward the audience, catching different aspects of the pictured multi-media as it drops to the ground. Jon Eden shows impressive control when he turns to the side, slowly waving the leaf forward to the ground and then backwards in a deep hinge.

Mr. Pendleton's injection of humor is sublime.  In Bird, Tsarra Bequette, dressed as a bird without a head, makes a couple of quick darts across the stage before pausing, "looking" at the audience to get her laugh and hurriedly running off in a perplexed manner.  The bird costume is 'miniskirt short', flaunting a pair of female legs as this bird daintily scurries, flicks, coupés and borés.  

There are instances of humor splashed all over the show, as I continually hear snickers and laughs coming from the audience, myself included. Many of these absurd and quirky moments follow impassioned moments, showing off Pendleton's balancing act of equally highlighting the beauty found in both the absurd and the profound.  The absurd combines with the practical when a man dressed as a snail crawls slowly across the stage dragging a heavy load - a bright green snail shell ten times bigger than his body.  Just when the audience snickers and assumes that this is just another short-lived comedic cameo, an insect-man is revealed behind the snail shell as Mr. Snail continues his slow journey off stage.  Insect man joins another man gliding across the stage with one foot strapped into a rollerskate in Insex.  Joshua Christopher and Rob Laqui do a fine job portraying hungry insects as they sharply expand and contract their ribcage and open and close their mouths while they search for grub.

Nudity is to Botanica as a daffodil is to spring - organic and aesthetically pleasing.   In Old Bones, Sarah Nachbauer portrays a cave woman who befriends a living Triceratops skeleton, one of Michael Curry's puppet designs that proves that he has scored once again with his puppet and prop creations for Momix.  Ms. Nachbauer frolics with the dinosaur that she believes is her friend before being consumed by it, writhing inside of its ribcage.  Rob Laqui comes alive after resting on one of the two rock piles, both of which come alive and wrap themselves like boa constrictors around the caveman .  After a dramatically harsh struggle, Mr. Laqui overcomes the menacing rock piles that have been clinging to his body and dances a beautiful duet with Ms. Nachbauer after she has successfully freed herself of the now dead Triceratops.  Ancient Stones is full of sweeping lifts and primitive longing as their pre-historic, half nude bodies melt into one another.  

God's Hammer reveals every member in the company as a blooming nude rose.  Flesh piles onto one another in a pattern as intricate as overlapped rose petals, mirroring the image of a red rose projected behind the bodies. They bloom and reach for the sun before closing in on one another as the rose withers.

What better way to connect every kind of person than to accentuate the natural symmetries, rituals and behaviors of the planet Earth? Moses Pendleton not only links traits of the Earth together to create an extravaganza of dance and media, but also reveals caricatures of certain aspects of the natural world, bringing humor and a unique perspective on the Earth that we live on. Pendleton stains a lasting imprint of Momix's Botanica in the mind of the viewer with this unparalleled evening of Mother Nature's quirks, by way of unmistakable genius with just the right twist of humor.

Bravo to all of the dancers for an intriguing performance: Jon Eden, Steven Marshall, Rob Laqui, Donatello Iacobellis, Sarah Nachbauer, Simona DiTucci, Cassandra Taylor ,Tsarra Bequette, Joshua Christopher, and Jennifer Chicheportiche

Photos Courtesy of: Max Pucciariello and Don Perdue

iDANZ Critix Corner

Official Dance Review by Adrienne Jean Fisher 
Choreographer: Moses Pendleton 
Performance: Momix's Botanica
Venue: The Joyce Theater, New York City 
Date: May 13th, 2009  www.iDANZOnline.com 

www.adriennejeanfisher.com 

Dancers-You Can Fly!

Fly-By-Night Dance Theater presents NYC Aerial Dance Festival 2009at the JCC in Manhattan, and the title of the show not only does not lie, but brings a truth to the convergence of aerial art and dance art that is totally groundbreaking.  The Goldman-Sonnenfeldt Auditorium (AKA the JCC in Manhattan) is a tiny black box with high ceilings (one reason this venue has been chosen for the show) totally packed with excited patrons waiting for the imminent aerial spectacles as the one hanging rope down center stage teases us in its blatant foreshadowing.

Starting out the show is not an aerial act, but a host.  He says, in more or less words (definitely more words), "Are you ready for what you are about the see?"  All of a sudden, the fourth wall has officially been broken (not typical for a concert dance show) because Mike is not saying these words in vain.  He actually wants a response from the audience; the theatre's patrons look at one another quizzically.  After he finally gets an answer from us (a hesitant and "feeling like we are being treated like kindergarteners" yes), he introduces the first aerial piece of the evening and walks offstage, although this is certainly not the last we have seen of this man.

three times, choreographed and performed by Kristin Geneve Young, kick starts the show to the sound of a ticking clock as she corroborates her virtuosity on the corde lisse. This piece is the epitome of a fusion of creative concept, musicality and integration of dance into tricky rope sequences. three times opens with Kristin hanging at the top of the rope in a black unitard, showing off her muscular prowess.  A metronome sits ticking back and forth on a stool upstage left.  Ms. Young shocks the audience when she takes a stroll with flexed feet in time with the tick-tocks around in a circle as if she is lying flat on a ticking clock on a plane perpendicular to the ground.  As she swings back and forth in a knot  at the bottom of the rope, created by the rope intertwined with her body, the image of a pendulum on a large grandfather clock comes alive on stage.  The lights fade out as the pendulum swings back and forth.  Kristin Young is an extraordinary choreographer who has brought choreographic enlightenment and a poignant movement dynamic to aerial dance.

Soon September, conceived and performed by Heather Hammond, is haunting in the way she uses mime and her imagination to create scenarios with a 2-point circus trapeze, in which the trapeze itself morphs into representations of different types of walls that exist in life.  At first, Ms. Hammond uses the rectangular shape that the two ropes and the seat of the swing create as a wall mirror as she puts on make-

-up facing the audience, looking sad.  Then, the trapeze becomes the wall between a clerk and customers as she performs transactions through the ropes.  After working as a clerk, she pushes this multi-faceted trapeze so that it swings back and forth slowly as she tries to chase it, always one step behind.  When she finally catches up to it and conquers the swing by climbing into it and swinging back and forth, we see her smile for the first time.  As she soars up and downstage on the trapeze, we see all of the tension that she has built up vanish.  She sits on the swing with her body hanging upside down facing the audience and gives us a beautiful display of her port de bras.  Heather Hammond is a master at incorporating a story into her work that is clear and moving.  She succeeds in bringing her trapeze to life, it representing work, play and self-perception.

Sara Joel floors me with her piece that seems to have been dedicated to the baby in her belly.  That's right!  Sara Joel is beautiful and pregnant all the while giving her baby the time of her/his life as this graceful aerial artist performs a self-choreographed piece called Surface.  She starts out in a transparent plexi-glass half sphere that she is balled up inside like a baby in a womb. The music, LaBarcheta and Neoclassical Moods, complements her dedication to her baby with soft, lullaby-esque melodies.  Ms. Joel gently reaches for the various points on the rim of the sphere and drapes herself on the top and on the bottom of the structure.  Her costuming, light blue pants and a light pink shirt that's tight at the bosom and falls open at the tummy) suggests that this baby could be a boy or a girl.  The choice to have the shirt expose the pregnant belly is perfect in that it immediately shows the parallel between the mother's pregnant state and the plexiglass sphere representing the very uterus that is holding the child inside her own womb.  In the end, Ms. Joel sits on the stage floor, looking up at the plexiglass sphere as it spins around and around.  The lights fade out on this image of her looking up at the spinning sphere/womb with a longing yet loving look on her face - a mother's love.

Julie Ludwick's choreography shines.  Set on the Fly By Night Dancers, Janet Alsawa, Kristin Hatleberg and Summer Tennyson Baldwin, I Can't Not brings the audience into the world of a one year old. (I Can't Not is inspired by Julie's child at the age of one.) This playful trio is colorful in their outfits and their joy.  Each movement exudes a wonderment and curiosity that bonds these three adults in memories of happy childhood and is infectious to the audience.  They play on the single point trapeze as if it is a jungle gym.  They continue to play in this playground as they accomplish such feats a shoulder stand to reach the top bar of the trapeze and a pig pile that follows a satisfying set on the trapeze. All three sporadically toss pieces of the brightly colored clothes around, watch the soaring brightly colored material mimic their own playful dancing. At times, the clothes fall draped on one another, including on appendages that spin around on the swing creating a baby mobile effect.  The lights fade out on all three dancer-aerialists as they strike a pose on the trapeze with all limbs pointing in different directions.  As it spins around slowly, one catches a glimpse of what a 1 year old baby sees as it lies in its crib looking up at a colorful abstract mobile, 

spinning around and around. Bravo ladies for highlighting a wide eyed and curious innocence that we get to re-live through a vivid moving portrait of childhood play.

The host continues to play his guitar and speak to the audience in a question and answer type way that continues to catch us off-guard every time that he appears in between every piece.  I hear murmurs amongst the patrons that amount to, "Didn't we come to see dancers and aerialist tonight?"  The general consensus is that more than 10% of the show being taken up by this man's entertainment is a little bit much.  He croons his original songs and tells us stories such as the time he went to Vegas and rode on a Gravitron type machine, in which he felt like he was flying.  He actually gets down on the ground awkwardly with the mic in one hand showing us the exact position that he was in on this Vegas ride.  I see, in my periphery, people covering their faces wondering if this is supposed to be a joke or not.  The point of this demonstration is to start an audience-host interactive conversation about whether or not anyone has ever felt like they were flying.  One man hesitantly talks about his time parasailing after a long awkward silence.  When he finally introduces the opening piece after intermission, the curtain gets stuck, and as we sit there in the darkness, we hear over the speaker system, "Is anyone afraid of the dark...I can tell you another story.."  Just before he starts telling us ghost stories, the curtain opens much to the relief of the audience.

Anna Vigeland wins the award for getting the highest in the air and performing breathtaking feats such as accelerating faster and faster in a spin not too different from that of an ice-skater.  In Malra, the cloudswing rope that she works with is unique in that both ends are tethered to the ceiling, allowing her to wrap herself up in it and also lay in it like a hammock.  Anna's intense gaze completes every line, and her beauty shines against her simple costuming of black shorts and tank top.  Bravo for bringing simplicity to such heights!

De Anima uniquely uses a tall, pewter-esque rectanglar trapeze as the flying device.  Deena Marcum Frank and Aimee Hancock, as choreographers and as performers, conceptualize creating a living, moving picture inside the metal frame.  Their dark gray, romantic dresses and the ethereal music, Miracle, Mystery and Authority by Jòhann Jòhannsson, create a somber picture of a relationship as they reach for one another in between impressive positions and seamlessly partner inside and outside the trapeze picture frame.  

Nathan Dryden is the incarnation of meditation in Reach. Flaunting his bare white torso and bald head, he swings back and forth on a trapeze with intense driving concentration.  The tattoo on his upper back is a beacon of energy as his expressive upper back flaunts this circular design. Although deep concentration is evident, his whole body is in the deepest form of relaxation.  This is the ultimate achievement as an artist:  total control and strength unbridled from any tension or extreme effort.  Well done Mr. Dryden for this effortless performance with a creative, meditative take on aerial/dance choreography.

Jordann Baker closes out the evening with Entertainer, a piece performed to Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit performed by the Vitamin String Quartet.  The only silk act of the evening, Ms. Baker's silks give her choreography an interesting edge as she twists herself into her baby pink silks that hang in two pillars straight down from the ceiling.  She craftily integrates floor-ography with movements on the silk that are not limited to but definitely highlight her splits (straddle and all!)  Many times during the piece, she tangles and then untangles herself in the silk to end in a split of some sort that it always impressive in its slightly hyperextended nature.  Kudos to the costume designer Kae Burke for her beautiful design of a black lace unitard with a very flattering neck and back line.  

Much to everyone's surprise, after everyone bows the host does not come back out before the audience to get another couple of words in or sing us another song.  It is understandable that the show needs some kind of filler as the rigging is being set up behind the curtain, but this host's shtick is a little extreme in the length of the songs and the constant prodding of the audience.  Host aside, Fly By Night is a stunning spectacle of aerialists.  This evening's program has proven that aerial dance is alive and living in New York City, and that the creative concepts that are born upon integration of flying and dance are limitless.

All Photos Courtesy of Fred Hatt

iDANZ Critix Corner

Official Dance Review by Adrienne Jean Fisher

Performance: Fly-by-Night Dance Theater Presents: The NYC Aerial Dance Festival 2009

Choreographer:  Julie Ludwick, Sara Joel, Jordann Baker, Heather Hammond, Kristin Geneve Young, MOTH Aerial Dance, Deena Frank, Aimee Hancock, Nathan Dryden, Anna Vigeland

Venue: The JCC in Manhattan Goldman-Sonnenfeldt Auditorium

Performance Date:  Saturday May 9th, 2009 8:30 PM 

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