Flash Review 2, 4-16: Only for Viola Should White Unitards be Worn
Pam Tanowitz Shapes the Moment
By Catey Ott
Copyright 2002 Catey Ott
NEW YORK -- Pam Tanowitz brings a sense of community and naturalness to the
otherwise cold technique, linear/angular shapes, and off-kilter poses of her blended
dance vocabulary. As seen this past weekend at Danspace Project at St. Mark's
Church, the positions of her dancers' bodies changed from smooth to quick, then
into surprise rhythms and weightedness that punctuated the phrases. Tanowitz created
a passing of time within an abstract story without following the typical climax/valley
tendency of dramatic dance. There was a sense that within the world of Pam, the
people just spoke in this way with their bodies and did not comment as the rituals
went on. The dancers acknowledged one another, also forecasting a psychological
process in order to connect, pass, or jump by one another. They pulled off the
technical precision and centering/off-centering demands with doubtless grace and
tension-free openness in the joints and faces.
The program, Afterpiece, was beautifully lilt by Carol Mullins, who
gave an icy shine, sometimes a greenish/blue hue to much of the
evening, producing a sense of daylight with subtle yet powerful
shadows providing a sense of present tense
to the environment for the dancers in their familiar feeling world.
Leave it to Mullins to bring warmth to ice and deposit trust in
shadows!
"Monument (for Viola)" seems like a signature piece for Tanowitz in
this stage in her style (I saw her dancers surrounded by plungers on
stage in 1998.) The
vocabulary presented here is fresh and prepares the audience for the
development of these dancers and this type of chatter which they
execute so well. The pleasing and mood varying string quartet of the
Corelli Sonatas filter in and out of the seamless dance, as the
dancers relay in and out of duets, trios, and quintets. The white
unitards with the small one-sided aprons were worn by all five
dancers, and were actually flattering, providing a clean line of
vision for showing off the facings, placement, and shapes of the
bodies. Only for Viola should white unitards be worn!
There are multiple moments to remember in "Monument." One is the
ease of Tamowitz lowering and rising out of the floor in precise
shapes without
needing momentum or effort in her quickness. In the first moment of
touch in a duet between Anne Lentz and Rashun Mitchell, the human
warmth is set up, and
lets the audience know that the dancers really see each other in the
encounters. It is here where the two are moved to subtle smiles
which invite the audience in a bit more. The power of focus and
upper back spiral of Megan Brains adds wonder and depth to the
situation in a solo of important dynamic rhythm, moving Tamowitz's
vocabulary to a farther range. William Petroni and Mitchell's duet
successfully moves
two clean, easy jumpers through space while giving a simple
heal-drop gesture the same importance.
"Informal" begins in a delicious solo by guest dancer extraordinaire
Tom Gold, a soloist with New York City Ballet. Gold's very formal,
almost royal ballet carriage is tamed by the grounded shapes and
weighted pauses into a push-off deep plie that
propels him through space. He spits out multiple pirouettes in bare
feet, his loud sense of inner timing making me wish to see him dance
in silence, as well to the beautiful live trio of musicians playing
the composition of Dan Siegler. The lovely length of Lentz and
strong grace of Mitchell enter, creating what could almost be a
romantic fantasy, yet Tanowitz gives us barely even that much
literally.
In the work as a whole, the body of the dancer seems to decide where
to go next and why and how, instead of displaying the inner drama of
a tumultuous decision
to forecast each idea. Instead there is a sense of importance and
humanness, discovered in the > intuitive and impulsive drive of the
dancers from one
moment to the next.
The rest of the evening is costumed by Yukie Okuyama. She knows how
to compliment a bodyline, providing flow with fabric and layer with
style and signature color. I appreciated the existance of a
significant costume budget and
applaud Okuyama's designs.
"Swan Song Once Removed," a solo for Mitchell, is a journey from
upstage right to downstage left, beginning the precise movement in
dim lights to sparse, to serene violin music by Garth Knox. The piece
concludes with a build of all of the elements until the final pluck
of a note resonates in the ears and for the eyes with a seated
pulling hand gesture into the air. MItchell grows from his journey.
Glad he arrived,
where that may be.
The final work on the program "Afterpiece," was danced this weekend
by Brains and
Lentz, joined by the strong and fresh energy of Katie Brack and Sally
Donabauer. The electronic score provides an atmosphere of an eerie
warped dimension
for an occasional collapse, parting of, and communal reuniting of the
group. There is a sense of compassion and support surrounding the
moments of needing to go through something alone. The sense that the
stressors are happening TO the dancers instead of coming from deep
within them could bring to mind September 11
or war, without overdone commentary. The silver and blue colors for
the costumes suggest the millennium, assisted in theme by Sieglers'
use of a malfunctioning music box repeating its melody with an
undercurrent of old record player and spacy pressure chamber. New
movement vocabulary is brought in: weather-vane legs in the air and
whipping of arms while turning, which spoke about what the atmosphere
caused them to need to do though dance. Two left on stage in a formal
shape as the lights faded caught me off guard for an ending to this
piece and the show as a whole; yet a quiet, formal exit may be what
we all needed to exit Pam's world.
Well, well, well... a clearly shaped leap in timing and shift in center since
the 1997 use of toilet plungers for atmosphere! I liked the thearticality then,
but am excited to see where Tanowitz leads this vision!
Catey Ott is a dancer and choreographer based in New York City.
