San Francisco Letter No. 14
EmSpace Dance and Courage
by Rita Felciano
Humor is a tricky business. To work, it needs an audience with a sense of common values, a sense of normalcy against which an aberration can be played off. We have—at least, I think we do—an implied set of expectations of behavior, of beings. They may differ from person to person, but there exists a common ground on which we all agree to walk. Humor grows out of that territory. That’s why pretense, the putting on of an obviously ill fitting cloak—either too big or too tight, worn to hide inadequacies—is such a popular subject for humor.
In two recent performances, choreographers Erin Mei-Ling Stuart and Todd Courage ventured into that treacherous terrain of trying to make us laugh, hopefully more at ourselves than at somebody else’s expense. READ MORE
No advance
Bangara Dance Theatre
by John Percival
Did I misunderstand? When I saw three Aboriginal dance groups taking part in the big Australian Festival of Dance in Sydney, 1978, I was led to believe that theirs was an essentially male tradition, handed down from father or grandfather or uncle to following generations (just as Egyptian raqs sharki is entirely female). And the publicity for the Aboriginal Bangarra Dance Theatre claims that its artistic tradition goes back at least 40,000 years — how do they work that out? But they also claim to reflect the lives and attitudes of indigenous Australian people today. What that seems to mean is that, like Spanish or Indian dance, the practitioners are mixing in other dance styles, believing that will improve their artistic quality. Nonsense, say I. What next — male belly dancers? READ MORE
New Steps
Choreography by Tom Gold, Edwaard Liang, and Brian Reeder
by Susan Reiter
Nothing could be more admirable than commissioning an entire program of ballet premieres, with live performances of contemporary music, and in this case the results were above average in level of interest and invention. The enterprising Miller Theatre followed up its thrilling Wheeldon/Ligeti program of last fall with this second venture into serious dance programming. All three choreographers selected to participate have ties to the city’s two major ballet companies — Tom Gold and Edwaard Liang are soloists with New York City Ballet, while Brian Reeder danced with both NYCB and American Ballet Theatre (as well as Frankfurt Ballet) — and were able to create these works on a superb selection of dancers from NYCB and ABT’s Studio Company. Liang and Reeder have been making noteworthy works in recent years, while Gold is a relative choreographic novice. READ MORE