Dance review: Los Angeles Ballet’s 'Celebration' at the Alex Theatre

Death did not quite become her. Sonya Tayeh, a commercial choreographic star, is no stranger to Los Angeles Ballet, having made work for the company last year.  To help commemorate the troupe’s fifth anniversary, Tayeh returned with a new work, “My Greatest Fear,” a beautifully danced but overwrought opus exploring the angst-ridden aspects of thanatophobia. 

Seen Saturday at the Alex Theatre as part of L.A. Ballet’s program “Celebration” (coming next to Redondo Beach and UCLA), Tayeh’s 25-minute journey was sandwiched between two George Balanchine numbers new to the troupe.  Equal parts “Night of the Living Dead” and Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” Tayeh’s work was set to elegiacally familiar scores by Max Richter and Arvo Pärt.  Staggered walks, fist-to-face motifs and crucifixion poses punctuated the piece, with unison cowering and upraised arms also contributing to the melodrama. 

Dance review: Martha Graham Dance Company at South Coast Repertory

The shock of recognition that Martha Graham and Isamu Noguchi both sought in their work was on view Friday at South Coast Repertory when Martha Graham Dance Company performed three numbers with sets by Noguchi. Presented by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, the program was part of the JapanOC festival and coincided with the storied troupe’s 85th anniversary.

That shock -- Graham’s profound and textured movement vocabulary seamlessly aligning with the elegant simplicity of Noguchi’s sculptures -- creates a sum grander than its parts. In it we see ourselves, our world, indeed, a sublime aesthetic that yielded a perfect marriage of 22 collaborations.

Noguchi’s striped tree of knowledge and swamp-like platform of reeds set the tone for Graham’s 1958 “Embattled Garden,”  which opened the performance (repeated Saturday).

Amusingly seductive, this retelling of events in the Garden of Eden set to Carlos Surinach’s Latin-infused score offered not idols, but imp-like creatures: Adam (Oliver Tobin) and Eve (Mariya Dashkina Maddux), are in a tizzy over two intruders (Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch’s scheming Lilith and Maurizio Nardi’s devilish Stranger). The women shuddered and squirmed; Nardi’s gigantic leaps and breathtaking dexterity were a revelation; Tobin conveyed jaunty machismo in this forbidden fruit dramedy.

From 1946, “Cave of the Heart,” is all blood and guts, jealousy and revenge in Graham’s Medea rendering. Abetted by Samuel Barber’s restless score and Noguchi’s rock-strewn landscape and serpent-spidery dress, the dancers delivered. 

Dance review: Hubbard Street Dance Chicago at the Irvine Barclay Theatre

A near perfect storm of movement, music and choreography thundered through the Irvine Barclay Theatre on Saturday when Hubbard Street Dance Chicago presented three mostly intoxicating works:  two new to Southern California (both from 2010) and “Too Beaucoup,”  an out-of-town preview of Israeli choreographer Sharon Eyal’s 33-minute opus. It has its “official” premiere March 17 in the Windy City, making this only a sneak peak, alas, and not available to review. 

Still, under Glenn Edgerton’s artistic direction, Hubbard happily continues its foray into the austere and the audacious — call them brave new works — by today’s cutting-edge dance makers. Opening with Aszure Barton’s “Untouched,” with a plush scarlet curtain as backdrop, a dozen dancers made grand entrances through the imposing velvet drapes.  Veering from bordello chic and debutante ballish to neo-operatic, the work was set to a mournful piano and string score by Njo Kong Kie, Curtis Macdonald and Ljova.

Flowing with emotive solos, determined duets and large group unisons, the work also featured a courtly neo-pavane threaded between thigh-slapping maneuvers and samba sashays.  Ana Lopez and Benjamin Wardell proved deeply affecting in the work’s final moments, their interlocking bodies and gentle caresses segueing to a sleek separation.

With 'Black Swan' and attacks on 'sugar plum' ballerinas, body fascism rears its head

It's Oscars season and feathers have been ruffled. While Darren Aronofsky’s ballet thriller, “Black Swan,” received five nods, terpsichorean talk has again turned to the issue of weight.

Best actress nominee Natalie Portman reportedly lost 20 pounds to sculpt a sleek body for the role, while New York City Ballet star Jenifer Ringer was called out last month by the New York Times dance critic for looking as if she’d “eaten one sugar plum too many” in a recent “Nutcracker” performance.

Ouch! The notion of body fascism -– placing a value on one’s physical appearance -– continues to rear its harsh head, more so now with the hit ballet movie drawing attention to the scale and the mirror, the double whammies that feed into the inherent narcissism of dance. Weighing in on the discussion, then, one wonders: Is it the critic’s job to judge the body or the performance?  Are they inextricably intertwined?  When does the aesthetic pronouncement become personal?

Body-critiquing in the arts is nothing new, though how the body is viewed has decidedly changed over the years.  Indeed, reactions to the packing on of pounds and other fleshly flaws can be charted back to at least the mid-18th century, when Paris Opera ballerina Marie Allard was relieved of her pointe shoes because frequent pregnancies had contributed to her excessive weight gain. 

To read my Arts & Books section essay on this hefty subject, including the notion that, to some extent, dance critics are all body fascists, click here.

-- Victoria Looseleaf

Photo: Natalie Portman in "Black Swan." Credit: Fox Searchlight.

Dance review: Tango Buenos Aires’ 'Fire and Passion of Tango' at Segerstrom Center for the Arts

The Argentine troupe Tango Buenos Aires featured requisite slinking, slithering and strutting, as five couples hooked up, broke up and eventually reunited onstage Friday at the recently renamed Segerstrom Center for the Arts. But what the company didn’t offer in its show, “Fire and Passion of Tango” (repeating Saturday and Sunday), was any kind of sustained heat and ardor, sexy costumes, an inspired set or visionary direction and choreography.

Sure, the 10 dancers were technically skilled, providing fleeting moments of sizzle and virtuosity, but something’s amiss when bandoneón player Martin Sued receives the loudest applause. Seriously, the five-piece band, under Emilio Kauderer’s musical direction, cooked in works by tangomeister Astor Piazzolla and others, but the dancers often seemed unconnected to the sultry sounds.  

Beginning with the full company in unison mode, main dancer Cynthia Avila soon doffed her shoes and tacky red dress to reveal a teddy. Slipping into soft shoes, the soloist with a slight -- but spooky -- resemblance to Spider-Woman, executed a series of arabesques and jazz-like moves that could have escaped from TV’s, “So You Think You Can Dance.”  After re-dressing, she was joined by partner Demián García in a duet featuring sleek dips and whiplash turns before they made their way to a salon.

There, Maria Lujan Leopardi and Esteban Simon managed some emotional fervor and technical fireworks, with him holding her aloft as if she were a ship’s bow.  Too bad their costumes were lavender and beige, detracting from the inherent darkness of the dance.  On the flip side, the comedic coupling of Florencia Mendez and Pedro Zamin appealed with a series of deep splits imposed on a goofy-faced Mendez by her haplessly rubber-legged partner.

Dance review: Collage Dance Theatre's 'Governing Bodies' at L.A. City Hall

The brass was out in force and so were the suits.  Cellphone yammering also meant that power brokers were making deals, greasing the wheels of justice.  Or were they?  This was not your typical day at Los Angeles City Hall, the historic edifice built in 1928. 

In fact on Saturday night, the assembled masses were called together by a trumpeter (composer Daniel Rosenboom), while members of Collage Dance Theatre, founded by Heidi Duckler in 1985, slid, slithered and sauntered about the cool marble floor of the Byzantine-style rotunda. “Governing Bodies,” Duckler’s 60-minute premiere (repeating Saturday at 4 and 9 p.m.), had begun. The politics of performance could be likened to real-life machinations:  The conception, smart and idealistic; the execution, disappointing and not quite, well, democratic, at least from this audience member’s point of view. 

Dance review: Catch Me Bird at the Ford Amphitheatre

Where is Snooki when you really need her?  Seriously, it's bad enough that reality TV has seemingly taken over the airwaves, but must it seep onto the stage, as well?  In an ego-driven, rudderless theatrical offering ripped from the headlines of their own misguided minds, the husband-and-wife team C. Derrick Jones and Nehara Kalev -- the dancers known as Catch Me Bird --- presented a shambles of a show Friday at the Ford Amphitheatre.

Dubbed “Iron,” the element associated with the sixth year of marriage, the two-hour premiere featured incessant blathering, uninspired contact improvisational segments, Sara Stranovsky singing horribly off-key, composer Ry Welch quasi-rapping, and, well, the list goes on.  Oh, yes, there were several Catch Me Bird signature aerial numbers, but even those felt like reruns.

The Champagne bubbles have fizzled.  Having exchanged wedding vows in midair in 2004 as part of a dance-theater performance, the pair has continued to mine their relationship for art in a series of so-called reality concerts.  At this point, however, a marriage counselor seems to be in order -- or, at the very least, a director, choreographer and script doctor.

Credit them with guts, though, as during the opening sequence, the light-festooned pair dangled in the dark from each of two 60-foot proscenium towers that frame the Ford stage.  But for them to get out of their Spider-Man gear and into more comfy clothes, they needed time -- and video filler. In the first of many split-screen images, Jones and Kalev spouted existential musings (“Optimism is not optimism but fantasy…”) before taking to the air again.

Dance review: Viver Brasil at the Ford Amphitheatre

Chelsea Clinton wasn't the only woman glowing in white on Saturday. Members of the locally based award-winning dance troupe Viver Brasil opened their eighth appearance at the Ford Amphitheatre also clad in the cloth that traditionally represents purity. The stage was awash in snowy hues as eight female dancers swathed in flowing skirts and manipulating squares of the fabric swirled ebulliently in the premiere of "Alaafia/Harmony.”

The title of the program, a 30-minute suite choreographed by Rosangela Silvestre, was a plea for peace, Bahian style. Under the direction of the husband-and-wife team of percussionist Luiz Badaró and Linda Yudin, Viver Brasil continues to evolve aesthetically in both dance and music since its founding in 1997.

Enlivening the world of ancient deities (orixas), in intoxicating ways, including exploring the white-magic religion of Candomblé, this year the troupe brought even more of Bahia -- home to the region's large Afro-Brazilian population on Brazil's northeastern coast -- to L.A.

Featured were six Bahian artists: dancers Nildinha Fonseca and Vera Passos (the latter also choreographed the program's finale, "Suingue Carnavalesco/Carnival Swing"); composer and percussionist Jose Ricardo Sousa (he and Silvestre wrote and arranged much of the music); singer Vania Amaral; and a pair of esteemed elders, who, despite their advanced years and slow gaits, could shake their booties, albeit briefly, with the best of them.

And what booty-shaking there was: Undulating to native polyrhythms, the beaming dancers proved indefatigable, their moves embodying the lush percussive sounds of cow bells and gourds, triangles, timbaus and surdos. The call-and-response atmosphere showcased the dancers in deep pliés, with arms upraised and often in prayer position, Dervish-style whirling and endlessly enthusiastic leaps.

At 2 1/2 hours, however, the program could benefit from editing. “Three Waters” (from 2008) and “Orixas” (2007), though festive and powerfully performed, took on similar patinas, save for the orgy of costume changes. Adding testosterone to the terpsichorean mix might have helped too.

The concert also suffered from odd pacing, with an extended musical interlude coming near evening's end. A pity, really, as the six players and two singers (including a soulful Katia Moraes) rocked, with guests Derf Reklaw (aka Fred Walker) killing on flute, saxophone and African drums, and cellist Joyce Rooks, who, though fighting the evening's cold to stay in tune, added a lyrical quality to the otherwise sizzling scores.

That said, the night held particular joys, including a riveting Laila Abdullah, whose effervescent solos compelled; the exotic Passos, strong but sylphlike in kicks and elbow stands in the neo-capoeira number, “In Motion (2007/2010)”; and Katiana Rush, whose back-bending prowess was a study in stamina.

-- Victoria Looseleaf

Photo: Viver Brasil performs  "In Motion (2007/2010)." Credit: Jorge Vismara

Memories of my friend, Harvey Pekar

Culture Monster contributor and dance reviewer Victoria Looseleaf remembers here how she befriended Harvey Pekar, who died early Monday at age 70, and of the day the comic book writer was almost kicked off "Late Night with David Letterman."

The city of Cleveland is mourning. Not because LeBron James decamped for Miami but because the much-maligned town has lost one of its true originals: Harvey Pekar, the surly comic book writer who began chronicling his hum-drum life in 1976 with the publication of “American Splendor.”

Since I too grew up on those sometimes harsh streets of Cleveland, I reached out to Harvey on a visit home in the early 1980s after becoming a “Splendor” fan.  His number was listed, I called and, bringing bagels and cream cheese, I arrived at his cluttered Cleveland Heights apartment to talk about, well, life.  For him that was toiling for years as a file clerk at the Veterans Affairs hospital, jazz, Cleveland's lousy winters and just getting by.

Thus began our friendship, if it's possible to be friends with someone suffering from anhedonia, the inability to experience joy. But I loved Harvey's unjoie de vivre, and a few years after starting my public access cable show, “The Looseleaf Report,” in 1987, Harvey made the first of numerous appearances.  “Splendor” had been adapted for the small stage, with Dan Castellaneta (voice of Homer Simpson) playing Harvey and Siobhan Fallon assaying Harvey's wife. Did he like it?

Dance the summer days away in L.A.

Summer becomes eclectic when some 20 dance troupes – mostly local – take to the stages of the Ford Amphitheatre and the Hollywood Bowl from now through October.  The range of styles is akin to a terpsichorean tasting menu:  folklorico, Brazilian and Israeli dance to tango, contemporary and hip-hop.

And though concerts under the stars may hold abundant pleasures for audiences, they occasionally present challenges for performers.  The Ford, for example, has terraced steps, lush trees and vegetation, and a bi-level performance area that includes a raked stage.

Jacob “Kujo” Lyons is artistic director of Lux Aeterna, a local troupe that fuses break dancing and contemporary dance.  Together with Antics’ Amy “Catfox” Campion, they’re on a bill of 10 troupes appearing in J.U.I.C.E., the third annual hip-hop dance festival at the Ford, on Oct. 2.

Says Lyons:  “The slanted stage has made it near impossible for our b-boys or b-girls to successfully pull off a decent head-spin without falling, but the oddly-shaped upper stage has offered all kinds of creative possibilities.  Every piece I’ve done at the Ford has been tailored to that stage.”

Adds Campion:  “Both Kujo and I fell off the stage doing a back spin.  The physics of the raked stage means there is less of you in contact with the ground.  But,” says Campion, “we love the Ford and I will forever be grateful to them for putting us on that first year, 2007.  I was fresh out of grad school and had never done anything on that scale before.  They took a chance on us, and we got a standing ovation.”

For a closer look at summer dancing in the area, click here for the Arts & Books section story. And here's a list of summer dance in L.A..

-- Victoria Looseleaf

Photo: Jacob "Kujo" Lyons of Lux Aeterna

Credit: Yuri Hasegawa