After 10 years, Artistic Director Laura Kariotis has built a company with a strong infrastructure, made dozens of works, and commissioned almost as many. And yet, sometimes Nomi Dance Company still flies under the radar. The issue hasn’t been one of quality or a lack of tenacity on Kariotis’ part – Nomi certainly has both – and I’ve written before that the thing that used to distinguish them was one of their dancers and lead choreographers: the late Paul Christiano. Without him, the past year has inevitably been hard, rebuilding the company’s identity in addition to recovering from personal grief. Maybe the thing that distinguishes Nomi is their resilience. They keep going in spite of negative circumstances, and once again Saturday were faced with an impossible situation when it became clear that their one-night-only fall concert was the same night as a critical World Series Cubs game at home.
And so it was for a small but loyal audience that Nomi presented four works – two old, two new – at the Athenaeum Theatre Oct. 29 kicking off its tenth anniversary season. Most successful were the opener and closer, both choreographed by Kariotis in her lyrical style. “Fyrsta Decad,” like the evening’s other three pieces, featured the company’s eight women, with the addition of guest artist Katy Fedrigon. Technically on point, and with just enough drama, “Fyrstra Decad” is meant to profile Nomi’s journey in an abstract way. Perhaps most obviously meeting this goal is the piece’s ending: after copious high kicks and turns the nine dancers line up shoulder to shoulder. They turn to the back, turn to the front, and walk stoically forward as the lights fade out. It’s a beautiful metaphor considering the group’s resolve to face adversity head on and keep moving forward, even when the future is unknown.
The other premiere on the program, “PROject purple,” took on the weighty topic of duality in an extreme socio-political climate by pitting contemporary dance against hip hop. The work’s two choreographers, company member Katie Carey and street dancer Daniel Williams produced a cohesive product, though the dichotomy between their respective forms gets a little lost on evidently ballet-trained bodies. “Altered Mannerisms,” by Brittany Reuss and Colleen Werner, has a similar problem. The rock-inspired jaunt is joyful enough to match its fantastic score of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, but perhaps too polished and lacking a dirty, raucous edge. Kariotis’ closer “At Attention” more closely echoes the energy of its tight score for drum set by Equal Temperament Percussion Duo, Professor Trance and The Energizers.