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DANCEWORKS CHICAGO "DANCE FLIGHT"

By Laura Molzahn

DanceWorks Chicago is a strange animal. Intriguing, but unclassifiable. Is it a school? Or a performing arts organization?

The globe-trotting DWC has the kind of touring schedule most artistic directors would kill for. They returned from Mexico City just a day or two before their one-night-only "Dance Flight" Tuesday at the Ruth Page Center. Then everyone left for Germany on Wednesday.

But DWC bills itself not as a dance company but as a "laboratory" for "early career artists." It's always made up of six dancers, who rotate in and out of the troupe. And though they may have trained, apprenticed, and even performed with well-known companies, in DWC they're implicitly preparing for, being groomed for, bigger things.

Founded by husband and wife Andreas Bottcher and Julie Nakagawa in 2007, shortly after their ten-year stint ended as the heads of Hubbard Street 2, DWC also pursues public dance education far more aggressively than most troupes. Accessibility and transparency are its watchwords; early on, DWC opened its auditions to the public, and during "Dance Flights" Nakagawa comes onstage briefly between works to wittily discuss them.

All very refreshing and admirable. In fact classification wouldn't matter --- if I weren't reviewing this evening of six pieces, presented in two hour-long parts. I'd go easy on a school. But DWC is so tantalizingly good, so expert in so many ways, that I have to treat it like any other company.

Maybe I've been around too long. Many of the pieces here reminded me of other choreography --- by Sherry Zunker for River North and by Lou Conte, David Parsons, Daniel Ezralow, and Jiri Kylian for or by Hubbard Street. It's not a matter of lifting anything; it's taking familiar approaches. And am I being overly cranky to complain that the program aimed too hard for entertainment?

Former Hubbard Street dancer and choreographer Brian Enos has created a fast-paced, sophisticated piece in "Ajorca," a world premiere set to Vivaldi's Concerto in B Minor. The title is Spanish for "bangle," and this glittering quartet often amuses with a sudden absurd gesture: a run of a few steps into a quick, awkward, childish embrace; waggling forearms to crazily speedy notes; legs kicking in frenzy while the rest of the dancer is draped over someone's shoulder. But Enos also does well with Vivaldi’s slower, more serious second movement, marked by a simple rocking step from side to side, arms and legs extended starlike. Playing with taut extension and abrupt droops, Enos follows the ebb and flow of the cascading music.

"Ajorca" must be a tremendous challenge to perform, but Kimberly Bleich, Amber Jackson, James Johnson, and Joseph Kudra did yeoman's work. And the piece moved so swiftly that no one had time to wear an appropriate face.

Gina Patterson's "My Witness," a full-company work created for DWC in 2009, was another standout. This suite set to half a dozen songs by the Sons of the Never Wrong flirts with but never succumbs to cliche. It's also that extreme rarity, a dance that pays tribute to marriage. Or at least long-term relationships. Beginning with the third section, whose song has the refrain "the stronger the wind, the stronger the tree," this sextet leaves stereotypes behind. A nuanced male duet was especially powerful, as was Johnson's dancing --- with his strong, pliant torso, he became the tree bent but not flattened by the wind. All the dancers, but notably Sarah Cecile Goldstone, looked fully invested in the emotion of Patterson's piece yet didn't oversell it.

Christian Spuck contributed two company premieres. "Paradigm," set to a percussion score by Chicagoan Gary Fry, was fun but so brief as to leave almost no impression. Spuck's duet "Die Blume" ("The Flower"), set to Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nacht Musik," was so cute it made my teeth hurt. Ouch. I don’t mind variations on a silly theme, but there weren't many variations here. The piece was also an open invitation to mugging.

Edgar Zendejas's 2008 quintet for DWC, "Sada," is as urgent as its music. But I couldn't figure out a reason for all the high-pitched emotion.

Harrison McEldowney's "Blues for Ann," a tribute to critic Ann Barzel set to Chess Records cuts from the 50s and 60s, is another cute dance with insufficient variations on a theme --- in this case, male-female relations. But I did perk up when Johnson started his outrageously wavy vamping to Muddy Waters’s "I Got My Mojo Working."

Overall the DWC dancers delivered the stuff. But by the end of the two hours they looked too tired for the partnering in "Blues for Ann" (though Louis James Jackson maintained his quickness). I understand the value of frequent performing and of building stamina, but these dancers seemed worn down to nubbins. And that's not good for them or for us, watching.

Reviewed by Laura Molzahn on 11/17/2010 at 10:52 AM