|
Fun
and Games
By
Susan Mehalick
Ellen
Sinopoli Dance Company
University
at Albany Performing Arts Center, March 3
 For
a regional dance troupe, one of the constant challenges is
reaching out to new audiences on the home turf. In its 11-year
history, the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company has continually
managed to come up with clever and sometimes cutting-edge
ways to present itself. The troupe’s latest performance outing,
billed as Dance by Chance, is a case in point. It was
designed as a fun evening of entertainment: Audience members
were charged admission to the recital hall in UAlbany’s Performing
Arts Center based on the number on a card pulled from a deck
at the box office, and once inside the theater, they were
met by the quick-witted William J. Spillane, the evening’s
emcee.
Part game-show host and part carnival barker, he explained
the rules of the game, as it were, and kept the hour-and-a-half,
intermissionless event rolling mostly at a steady clip. He
ushered audience members to the stage’s edge to spin a wheel
to determine which dance would be performed next. There were
15 possible selections—solos, duets, trios and quartets—most
of which were sections of longer dances from the troupe’s
repertoire. The dancers provided impromptu drums rolls by
slapping the stage with their hands. Once each selection was
made, Spillane busied the audience with prize-giveaway games
and high jinks as the dancers prepared to perform. Company
artistic director-choreographer Sinopoli then gave brief intros
to each work before they began.
There was a definite air of informality to the proceedings,
and the evening may well have involved more nondance shtick
than actual dancing. Nonetheless, the event did offer first-timers
an accessible and varied introduction to the troupe. As well,
it gave company followers a glimpse of both new dancers and
sections from the evening-length piece that will premiere
in April at the Egg.
In all, eight pieces were danced. Most were short four- or
five-minute excerpts from well-known company staples such
as the sensual, watery opening solo from Selchie; a
buoyant and cheery quartet from Relay; and On the
Spot, a fast-paced, furious jazz-fueled explosion of movement
and color from Cliché.
A short sampling of Sinopoli’s signature movement vocabulary,
with its lightning-fast rolls and awkward angular poses (picture
dancers on the floor rolling up onto one shoulder and pressing
an ear to the floor while their bent legs are suspended above,
and you’ve got the idea), was best showcased in an excerpt
from Coming and Going.
The most intriguing dances were two sections from the upcoming
premiere, a solo titled The Suitcase, and a duet called
The Marriage Bench. (The completed work will feature
nine wooden benches or seats interpreted from African designs
by area artist Jim Lewis.) In the former, a dancer sits and
balances on top of a thick wooden block, or swings it by its
attached handle and lets its weight pull her forward, as if
it might be leading her somewhere. The latter featured a couple
in a courtship dance, performed on and around a two-seat bench.
The dancers approached each other with caution and anticipation,
or wrapped around one another in full-bodied embraces.
This evening of mostly light entertainment might have benefited
from fewer, lengthier selections. Some of the short dances
seemed to be finished before they began. Moreover, by the
eighth dance, the program format had grown somewhat stale.
The rule of thumb in games of chance, after all, is to quit
while you’re ahead.
|
Columns
& Opinions
