The well-drilled dancers of Inaside Chicago Dance can sure shake a leg, leap sky high, or kick the dickens out of a jazz routine. Routine describes most of the work this troupe of seven earnest dancers, augmented by apprentices and students from the company school, presented in its fall concert at the Athenaeum Theatre this past Friday.
Inaside, under the direction of Richard Smith, capitalized on slick jazz moves in a fast-paced program of eight works that took their cues from the commercial world of TV’s popular dance shows, without the high-stakes technical stunts or stylistic diversity. Choreography rarely ventured into unfamiliar territory, and relied on popular techno-beat electronics for much of its musical back-up.
Ranging from the clean unison work in Will Gill’s “The Inner Circle” to Dionna PridGeon’s fleeting attempt at a mix of spoken text and narrative theme in “Everything Out Of My Mouth Was A Lie” (2013), movement tended toward literal mirroring of musical accents, electronic quirks, and lyrics. Sarah Ford’s duet for herself and the riveting Marcus Hardy was a perfect example of this, with the dancers’ rigid arms ticking off the seconds on a spatial clock to the tick-tock of Ahn Trio and Oliver Tank’s music. The two paired nicely in a relationship duet that, while it never built, was pleasing to watch for the dancers‘ mature command of the movement and skilled partnering. A plus on all fronts was the brevity of each work.
A pervasive mechanical numbing of humanity colored the landscape of much of the program, with plenty of geometric arm gestures, linear group spatial drills, rolling, twitching and writhing, all with the blank stare of the dispossessed.
If we didn’t get the message of alienation in the first half of the program, the fog machine and straight-line architecture of Eddy Ocampo’s “The Alarm Will Sound” drove that message home in the second half. Alternating unison ensemble sequences with canon form added visual interest, but one odd choice was a unison group penché arabesque facing the back stage wall that exposed more than the dancers’ technique.
More clicking sound effects accompanied Ford and Hardy in Ford’s “Between You and Me (2014) in a romantic duet that distinguished itself with some creative movement invention. Hardy’s magnetic stage presence, imposing physique, and technical strength make him the major asset of this company.
Brandon DiCriscio’s “Nothing Changes” (2013) is another eerie mechanical zombie ballet, built on fists and thrusts, shoulder rolls, and non-specific conflict that culminates in a love melt-down where in the end, everyone simply collapses.
Robert McKee’s “Pathways” (2015) changed the pace, closing the program on a celebratory note with the full company in an all-out group pep rally. Attitude leaps, spiral shoulder rolls, and swinging arms imparted a happier tone and a sense of freedom. The dynamic variety was a welcome change, building to a dance-crazy frenzy, then stillness.