REVIEW: The Houston Met's Spring Concert

The Houston Metropolitan Dance Company's Spring Concert featured the works of new and more established choreographers from both the commercial and concert worlds. News of a new building with parking, no less, got the full-sized crowd in a good mood from the start. But it was the return of Joe Celej, a former Met dancer, that made for the big news, both in his performance in a reprise of his 2005 knock your socks off duet with Marlana Walsh, What More, and his riveting new group work, ForeverFleeting.

Now dancing with Elisa Monte Dance, the fact that Celej has kept strong ties to this small dance company is admirable. It is also a testament to the Met's artistic administration that they stay connected to an artist like Celej. Certainly it's a good thing when people move on, but it's also heartening when they return.

Celej's tender duet just gets better with repeated viewings. Enlisting a tangible chemistry, Walsh and Celej come as close as possible to finishing each other's sentences in movement. It's tumbling forward pace is punctuated by long moments of resting, lingering, and total surrender. With his new work, ForeverFleeting, Celej pushes this young troupe both technically and theatrically. The piece pierces your attention from the get-go, luring you into its hypnotic spell. Celej is a master of balancing dense movement with stillness, and he shows this talent with a terrifically effective passage towards the end. The dancers pound out a gestural tirade while taking turns standing still. The quiet dancer then repeats the phrase with a looser touch, much like a call and response echo.

Salim Gauwloos gets the cryptic award with his ode to Gothic mysticism, 11:11. Dressed in black futuristic gowns, the four women engage in the rituals of a secretive ceremony with the help of four folding chairs as if under direct orders from a higher power. One quibble: this regal regiment should have a fancier set of chairs. Plain old folding chairs didn't fit the piece.

Eddy Ocampo's Vicissitude fits the troupe's high-octane talents and showed off tight ensemble work, dynamic dancing, and complex and visually compelling group formations. Gray unitards with borders on the arms and legs further amplified the athletic spirit.

Pattie Obey's Faces of Love, set to Gary Moore's rock blues, got off to a wobbly start. The piece moved into its own during the solos. Lynzy Lab stood out in her fearless, full-steam-ahead dancing. Peter Kalivas' large group work, Lose Myself, got lost along the way; it suffered from too much movement going nowhere. Kiki Lucas' Benevolence felt like more of the same.

Over all, if the Met wants to ramp it up to the next level, they need to think more about the diversity of the program. Outside of Celej's work, the evening felt like the audience was on the same channel. More thought needs to go into costuming each piece as well. The production values do not match the high quality dancing.

Speaking of these terrific performers, they included guest artist Joe Celej, company director Marlana Walsh, resident choreographer Kiki Lucas, company members Lauren Garson, Lynzy Lab, Jocelyn Thomas, and apprentices Samantha Camarillo, Christopher Cardenas, Katie Heintz, Karen Pfeifer, Liz Osterwisch, Lisa Tschopp, and interns Whitney Alexander and Blair Buras.

Reprinted from Dance Source Houston.

IN MOTION: UH's Karen Stokes on Moving Pictures

Karen Stokes, choreographer, dance enthusiast, and Head of the Dance Division at University of Houston, fills DSH in on Moving Pictures, the coming UH faculty concert, and her life in Houston's non-stop dance lane.

Dance Source Houston: Why should Houston dance folks trek out there to see the show?

Karen Stokes: I hope that Houston folks in general will come out to see the show since “dance folks” are in limited supply. Here are some reasons to come:

Some of Houston’s most interesting choreographers are presenting new work including Jennifer Wood, Rebecca Valls, and Toni Valle. The theme of the concert revolves around contemporary classical music and was jointly selected by UH faculty choreographers and the Director of AURA (Moores School of Music Contemporary Ensemble). The show gives dance lovers & music lovers a chance to see how these choreographers interpret the music.

The University of Houston has been providing a “bench” of performers to the contemporary dance scene in the last few years with alums dancing with Hopestone, Suchu Dance, Sandra Organ Dance Company, Uptown Dance Company, Leslie Scates, Psophonia Dance Company, Rebecca Valls, Teresa Chapman, Dancepatheater, Toni Valle, and Travesty Dance Group. This is a chance to see some of the “up & coming” dancers in our scene. Plus, it’s a great show. Perhaps I should have put that first.

DSH: I'm sold. I see that you have some energy going on between the dance faculty and the faculty at Moore's School of Music.

KS: I think the only composer that is also a faculty member is Rob Smith, and I selected his work. In truth, I selected the piece from a CD Rob gave me for another project entirely. Rob had given the faculty choreographers a CD of selected work that he felt would be great for AURA to play. I let the other choreographers select their pieces first, and then I listened to what they had selected. It seemed to me that the work in general was “serious” and I thought the concert could use a more humorous sound. So I asked Rob if I could use this sax piece of his (he was not one of the composers on our “list”) from the other CD. It struck me as a quirky, lively world of sound that would enhance the overall concert.

The collaborative component of this project really had to do with the April 11th production in which student musicians and student dancers performed together. But for those who missed it – we are reprising the choreography with recorded sound on our upcoming dance concert.

DSH: How did this come about?

KS: Rob Smith deserves the credit, along with Karen Farber at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts. A couple of years ago Rob suggested that composer Stephen Montague be a guest artist with choreography set to his work. His proposal was accepted as a Mitchell Center project, which helped us to fund the first collaborative production. It was a success, and Rob wanted the collaboration to continue.

DSH: Was it a challenge to use original music? How so?

KS: The piece I used by Rob is titled “Morse Code Pop.” It was challenging in large part because of the mixed meter which meant that “counting” was not possible for the most part. However, we got into the music by listening to all the different “beeps” and rhythms and in the end, the dancers and I were all able to “sing” most of the musical phrases after a fashion. This helped us to get “inside” Rob’s world a little. Also – Rob provided a lovely ABA tempo structure that went from allegro to adagio to allegro (fast/slow/fast), which provided a nice overall structure to work with. All in all, I would not say it was any more challenging than any other work I’ve created. They all seem impossible to me in the beginning. Then somehow, a few answers are found.

DSH: I always think its good to collaborate in the neighborhood. How do you see the relationship between the UH dance community and the larger community? Is it changing?

KS: I think that the UH dance community has been actively engaged in the local (particularly contemporary) dance scene in recent years. We have many links through our faculty and our students/alum. Our adjunct faculty is hired in large part to provide links from UH to the outside dance community. The creation of Big Range Dance Festival was partially conceived as a link between the UH Center for Choreography and Barnevelder Movement Arts Complex. As mentioned before, many local choreographers use our dancers in their work. While we are still “fleshing out” the possibilities exchange – there are many community crossovers that are already occurring. As our program builds in resources (particularly full-time faculty), I hope our ability to become a center for the community will increase.

There are also bridges being built between the arts right now. The Mitchell Center’s emphasis on collaborative performance art is helping all of us move in the direction of cross-disciplinary work. Dance is cross disciplinary by nature (we mix often with music, theater, & art). So I don’t think that this is new in concept in any way. However, it is new to be able to get support specifically for this– that is a great motivator. Desire alone does not make art – in the end – you have to get funding to produce the work.

I am a glass half full person. I think the UH Dance Community is growing and changing in positive directions – and I believe this growth has and will positively enhance our larger dance community and the city of Houston. Community is a “buzz” phrase in my classes. My students know that I feel community is paramount – and I hope that this will translate into more possibilities in the future.

DSH: How competitive is it these days to make into the UH ENSEMBLE?

KS: We often have dancers stay for several years in ENSEMBLE – lingering until they absolutely must graduate, so that’s a nice affirmation of our group. It is a strong community – one in which many of the dancers become very close. It also is a “pre-professional” experience, with the dancers working upward of 18 hours a week in the dance studio. These dancers really get pushed and they still have to finish their academic homework. Some of our best ENSEMBLE dancers started their dance training at the University of Houston – and we are proud of that. We want to create dancers who are technically proficient, who are strong individuals on stage, and who are critical thinkers. I think we have some success – even though I am prejudiced.

It is competitive to get into the ENSEMBLE – but to be frank – often the time commitment alone will weed out many would be ENSEMBLE members. It takes a dancer with good dance skills and even better discipline/commitment to make it through both ENSEMBLE and college at the same time.

DSH: And I must say you are doing a great job with this new crop. Any way to convince some of these dancers to hang around? We are in midst of a serious dancer drought.

KS: Some of our best dancers will stay because they prefer living in their hometown to going off to NYC or Chicago or wherever. So we don’t have to worry about all of them leaving. Meanwhile – I don’t think it is such a bad idea for dancers to get out of Houston and explore the world. I did it myself – and learned a lot. So I’m not going to make the argument to stay here – because I want our students to succeed on their own terms. For some, that means staying. For others, that means going. I want to support whatever their choices are – as long as they are positive life choices.

As a general answer to dancer drought: To keep or attract dancers to Houston, we need to provide exciting, interesting dance jobs with salaries. Dancers will work for free on projects they are passionate about. But – in the end – they deserve to be paid. Of course, this is not just a Houston problem – funding for dance is a long-term national problem that all dance artists deal with in one way or another here and elsewhere.

But as I say – I’m a glass half full person. If a choreographer needs dancers, they should create an environment in which dancers want to work and feel inspired by. It helps if you can respect your dancers by paying them something. But in the end, it is the work itself that will draw the dancers. If there is to be a short answer to this question: To keep dancers, provide exciting opportunities.

DSH: Amen to the dancers getting jobs idea. You have two jobs. What's it like juggling your work with Travesty and your work at UH? How do you see the two as connected?

KS: Juggling UH and TDG is an on-going challenge. I love both jobs, but both are extremely time consuming. There are times when one job must take over – and the other must move to the back burner. These flows happen fairly organically (as deadlines approach), but I try to assist by not putting too many projects onto my plate at the last minute, planning ahead, time management, etc. However, I often do overload (being a “yes sayer” by nature), and then I have the “excitement” of managing the overload.

Teaching & creating are almost inseparably connected at this point. Choreography is my passion. I really think dance making is fun. Not the administrative work (I know of no choreographer that loves this), but the process – the hours I log in with company members, is marvelous. Because I feel this way about dance making, it feeds me as a teacher. I don’t think I would be all that effective as a teacher if I did not truly feel excited about the work I do. So one is necessary for the other in my case. Also – working in the “real world” (outside of academia) gives an extra dimension to what I can teach students.

On the other hand, being in academia provides interesting stimulation that I cannot get in the professional world. Teaching allows me to contextualize what I’m doing as a dance maker. It puts into action my belief that being a “thinking dancer” is crucial. As an active dance maker, I am able to bring to the table relevant information for our dance students who are interested in choreography. Since choreography is a focus of our program (Center for Choreography), this seems important.

I also use alum in my choreography – they know how I work, and I understand and enjoy their skills and personalities from having worked with them first in training.

The Center for Choreography has several “affiliated” choreographers and dance companies, of which Travesty Dance Group is one. We link with programming when possible (such as TDG performing with UH ENSEMBLE and Aura recently), we provide performance opportunities for students, and we receive benefits such as rehearsal space through this affiliation. It’s a win-win for all of us, and makes a strong bridge between the professional dance community and the academic learning environment.

DSH: What’s next? And don't be shy. Let it all out.

Here's what we have on our TDG calendar – and there will be more with University of Houston calendar coming soon.

May 16 TDG & UH ENSEMBLE at Discovery Green 7:00 p.m. via Fresharts

June 5-7 TDG performs a new piece at Big Range Dance Festival in a program curated by Teresa Chapman

October 18 TDG performs new original (ground up) collaborative work with Musiqa at Zilkha Hall (composer Rob Smith)

November 6-9 TDG travels to Philadelphia to perform with TDG national group

December 11-3 TDG performs “Portables” at Zilkha Hall

March 2009 TDG does the Discovery Series at Zilkha Hall

UH presents Moving Pictures on April 25 & 26 at 8pm, and April 27 at 2pm at the L. F. Wortham Theater. Call 713-743-2929.

Reprinted from Dance Source Houston

E_Merging II: Dominic Walsh Dance Theater

Dominic Walsh Dance Theater paired two icy works at an icy cold theater this past weekend in E-Merging II, his yearly foray into more experimental work. The show presented the world premiere of Dominic Walsh's Terminus, and the US premiere of Gustavo Ramirez Sansano's Dicese. The tenor of both works felt remarkable similar, both chillers—dark and foreboding.

The company has also had some changes in the ranks. The troupe, streamlined into three Italians and three Americans, was in top-form. Domenico Luciano was sidelined due to an injury and DWDT favorites, Lindsey McGill and Paola Georgudis, have officially retired from the company. All were missed.

E_Merging is also a time for Walsh to collaborate with noted Houston visual artists. This time around he's selected Italian-born painter Nicola Parente and painter/sculptor Cameron Sands.

Terminus, Walsh's newest opus for five dancers, takes a while to induce its spell. But like a good novel, its worth waiting out the slow opening for its later, juicer parts. Walsh is at his best when he's not in a rush. Several square screens are suspended above the stage, surrounded by large white flood lights. Projected on to the screens are Nicola Parente's footage, stills, and paintings, capturing the dancers in motion and in closeup. Later during the piece, more abstract images resembling urban decay come and go in a rhythmic accompaniment. On the side of the stage sits Two Star Symphony, Houston's venerable indie string quartet, playing a collection of their greatest hits. The dancing moves in solos, duets, and scattered ensemble work enlisting Walsh's highly sharp-edged choreography, all of which fits nicely into the container shared with the edgy string musicians and Parente's striking work. Walsh frames his dances with a good eye for the whole of what an audience experiences. Walsh has been making strides this season in having the visual design assume a larger presence in his work.

Parente's contribution works well and there's a nice sense of scale and balance between the size and placement of the images. Costumes, jointly designed by Walsh, Parente, and Luciano, consisted of sleek paneled skirts, and merged well with the overall structure of the piece.

Jeremy Choate's eerie lighting stays within Walsh's cryptic mood. At various intervals flood lights come on leaving the dancers backlit in an otherworldly glow. It feels very urban, like artificial light on a street corner at 2 am.

The conclusion of Terminus is particularly mysterious. Dawn Dippel and Riccardo De Nigris appear in nude-toned underwear and proceed to cover each other with blue paint through a sensual partnering. Possibly, they have become the paintings. The ballet's structure is curious, rambling but still arresting. In the end, the piece succeeds on its collaborative energy. Also, it's good to see Walsh push himself into unknown territory, resisting more tried and true templates for dancemaking.

Sansano's Dicese was less successful. Walsh begins reading a statement on the anatomical details of the human body, while a growing noise begins to drown him out just at the point that the verbiage is becoming mildly tedious. All of this happens as a dancer stands motionless, assuming the role of the human in question.

Amy Cain writes the question, “is the conscious sum of all our perversions” on a large plexiglass board while dancing up a storm. Finally, she adds the word “Beauty” at the front of the sentence, transforming the question into Salvador Dali's oft-quoted words, Beauty is the conscious sum of all our perversions.” As clever as this section is, the phrase renders little in the way of meaning or context to Sansano's aimless ballet. The plexiglass screen is also paired with a mylar wall. There were glimmers of visual interest when the dancers moved in front of it. Sands's contribution has merit but seems lost in a sea of loose thoughts. The bare industrial stage has that “been done way too much before” look; we all know what the back of the Hobby Center looks like by now, and, for the most part, it's distracting and rarely, if ever, works as a backdrop. At the piece's most amusing point, the dancers don paper doll outfits which end up hung up on ballet barre. At the conclusion, Federica Vincifori screams at the dolls outfits. There was some great dancing here, but alas, the ballet never found its center.

The dancers—spectacular all—included Walsh, Cain, Dippel, Riccardo De Nigris, and Vincifori.

Reprinted from Dance Source Houston.

FIGHT CLUB: Houston's Combat Master Brian Byrnes

The famous saying, “Live by the sword, die by the sword” has a different resonance for those toting swords on stage. Stage combat keeps us at the edge of our seats, yet it’s an illusion. No one really dies, because of course the show needs to go on the next night.

The man behind so many of Houston’s swinging swords and fast punches is Brian Byrnes, fight director, certified teacher of combat arts, Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) fight master, and Associate Professor at the University of Houston School of Theatre & Dance. Byrnes’s work has heated up productions at the Alley Theatre, Houston Grand Opera, Stages Repertory Theatre, The Ensemble Theatre, Theatre Under the Stars, Houston Ballet, Dominic Walsh Dance Theater, Main Street Theater, and Houston Shakespeare Festival.

And, that’s just his Houston credits. When blades strike and heads roll, it’s usually Byrnes calling the shots.

Byrnes was first exposed to fight combat in college at the University of Iowa, and it was love at first jab. His senior year he took up sport fencing, which he found very useful in the development of his craft.

“The process of landing a touch, but not being touched, is great training for developing effective distance and timing,” says Byrnes, who continued training various combat techniques to reach the expertise he now brings to area stages. For Byrnes, the “scene” is always the operative idea in creating a fight. Each battle needs to be cut from the same cloth as the piece he’s working on. When working with Dominic Walsh on his Romeo & Juliet, the fight scenes revealed a flavor of Walsh’s intricate choreography. “Violence shouldn’t ever be gratuitous,” he says. “It’s often what moves the story forward. You want to bring the audience into the character’s world.”

It’s been a banner spring for Byrnes that found him directing combat in Shakespeare’s Othello at the Alley, Craig Wright’s Lady at Stages, and Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd at HGO. And that’s in addition to his weekly classes at the University of Houston, where he teaches physical theater, movement for actors, and several levels of stage combat.

Byrnes spent a good deal of March immersed in Othello, directed by Scott Schwartz at the Alley, where he has choreographed over 50 productions thus far. The process is more complicated than it seems. You just don’t hand over lethal weapons and command a fight.
“I sat down with Scott to get an idea of his treatment,” says Byrnes. “We were going for a brutal and immediate energy to the fight scenes.” In keeping with the stripped-down, made in front of the audience’s eyes style of the production, Byrnes used a variety of swords, knives, and several “found/improvisational” weapons that were already on hand. He echoed the rawness and danger of the setting in his visceral fight scenes.

Over at HGO, the denizens of the HMS Indomitable in Billy Budd are sharpening their daggers. This will be his first production of Budd and marks Byrnes’ 30th HGO production, in addition to his master classes for the HGO studio. “Working in opera is fairly specific,” admits Brynes. “You know a fight is going to last so many measures and needs to be exactly timed to the music.”

Budd employs swords, cutlasses, daggers, knives, muskets, pistols, and a variety of nautical equipment to keep the action on edge. Daniel Belcher plays Budd and is thrilled to be working with Byrnes again. Belcher worked closely with Byrnes in his portrayal of Mercutio in HGO’s 2005 Romeo and Juliet.

“I am lucky he is doing the fight direction for Billy Budd. His fights are always incredibly realistic, and he works individually to each artist’s strengths. Also, the man is amazingly patient with each of us,” says Belcher. “I have been able to apply much of what I have learned from Brian throughout my career. I look forward to seeing what surprises he brings to the table.”

The feeling is mutual from Byrnes, who enjoys working with singers that see combat work as a crucial element to their training. Byrnes feels the shift in opera towards more solid acting skills has been a good thing. “HGO is really invested in making the combat scenes believable,” he says.

The fight scene often occurs at a pivotal place in the plot, which is exactly the case in Lady, Wright’s intense drama that depicts a group of childhood friends who find themselves on different sides of the Iraq war debate. Byrnes had to cope with firearms and hand-to-hand combat as well as figuring out what kind of blanks to use. Lady’s director, Leslie Swackhamer, faced several challenges.

“Brian worked with us to make sure that we carried the guns and handled them in ways that are realistic to hunters, but also in ways that would never make the audience or the other actors feel threatened or unsafe,” says Swackhamer. “We had an extra challenge because the space is small and very alive for sound. We had to try a number of different load combinations to come up with a charge that would not deafen the audience and the actors, yet would still have a realistic edge.”

Byrnes also contributed to Swackhamer’s Don Giovanni at Opera in the Heights last season.

“His fights are always dynamic and theatrical,” she says. “He is amazingly sensitive to the text, and to furthering the story we are trying to tell. As a director, I love working with him because I know that he has a million tricks up his sleeve; he will make my fights unique, and he will be dedicated to making sure my performers are safe and secure.”

Safety is key in fight combat. “It’s a fine line,” says Byrnes, “You want it to look realistic but you never want the audience to be concerned for an actor’s safety. I can always tell when an actor is in control. We practice distance, and masking (the angle the audience sees), and action/reaction to make it look real.”

Stepping into his graduate stage combat class at the University of Houston, you see students pummeling each other in various combinations as they practice several styles of combat. According to his students there’s no quicker way to drop into your body than waging a combat scene with your fellow actors.

“It’s just like learning your lines,” says Kristen Green, who has finished flying over the back of one of her classmates. “This kind of training also builds trust.” Choreography is key to keeping everyone safe. “Once you have it your body you transpose it just like a script,” says Leraldo Anzaldúa, who recently showed off his ace combat skills in Bertolt Brecht ‘s The Good Woman of Setzuan. “It’s a physical dialogue and you become very aware of your body.”

There’s a general consensus that combat training establishes a self awareness that can inform any role, whether it’s physical or not. For student David Millstone, the process goes even deeper. “One of the challenges for any actor is to go to the darker places,” says Millstone. “I find in combat work I often visit the unexplored parts of myself.”

Byrnes brought that “unexplored” part of Hamlet to Houston audiences in his direction of the Nova Arts Project production last season, complete with riot police, a ticking-bomb Hamlet, and an atmosphere of certain doom and collapsing momentum.

“Brian’s view of Hamlet was of a dark world devoid of all kindness. The characters only knew action and brutality and that showed clearly in the physicality of his interpretation, direction, and fight choreography,” remembers Amy Hopper, co-director of Nova Arts who also worked with Byrnes at University of Houston. “His world was in constant movement.”

In addition to directing Hamlet, Byrnes also wrote Nova Art’s debut production, Stella...Stella for Star in 2005 and several children’s plays.

The bottom line for Byrnes is to place stage combat into the larger realm of an actor’s world. “It’s really a matter of physics,” he says. “The movement itself needs to be believable. It’s just good acting training.”

Houston Audiences can next catch Brian Byrnes’s combat scenes in the HGO’s production of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd on April 25 &27, May 2, 4, & 9, at Wortham Center. Visit houstongrandopera.org.

TOP: Students in Brian Byrnes Stage Combat class
Photos by Kara Duval

Reprinted from Artshouston.

DanceBrazil's RITMO

Taking a dance from the streets to the stage comes with a certain set of challenges. For DanceBrazil, performing the Capoeira-based Ritmo at Jones Hall Thursday, the goal is to entertain, educate and be as authentic as possible.

Capoeira was created in 16th-century Brazil by African slaves as a way, many scholars have argued, for them to train in martial arts without their owners' knowledge. The dances appear to be a gamelike conversation between performers, with fierce kicks, eye-popping acrobatics and other fightlike moves performed to rhythmic music that incorporates elements of samba.

These days, Capoeira is more likely to be found in a school or a gym than in the street.

"It's become far more athletic," says Jelon Vieira, 55, DanceBrazil's artistic director and choreographer. "And now it has spread all over the world."

Vieira started practicing Capoeira in his hometown, Santo Amaro da Purificação, Bahia, in northern Brazil, when he was 10 years old. "Capoeira was not held in very high regard back in the 1960s," Vieira remembers. "I told my mother I was playing soccer, and she believed me when I came home dirty and sweaty."

He eventually went to the United States to study with Alvin Ailey, José Limón and other pioneers of modern dance. In 1975, at Ailey's suggestion, he launched DanceBrazil.

"Ailey actually named my company," the choreographer recalls. "He told me to keep it simple."

Vieira tries to maintain Capoeira's essential ingredients — particularly the daring, risk-taking quality that gives the dance its edginess — while presenting a thoroughly theatrical show. Still, a considerable amount of adapting is required.

"The dances need a good amount of shaping and polish to avoid becoming too repetitious," says Deborah Quanaim, co-director of the World Dance Institute at Central College Houston Community College.

She points out that Capoeira is traditionally performed in a semi-circle, which works remarkably well on stage. Vieira maintains the circle formation in Ritmo, but also plays with new, more complex formations.

Capoeiristas improvise wild cartwheels and flips, but the stage demands more planning. "Our show is 95 percent choreographed," Vieria says. "We improvise at the very end so the audience can see and feel the energy of the street."

While DanceBrazil performers are trained in ballet, modern dance and Capoeira, the troupe also includes some traditional capoeiristas to maintain authenticity. Original music by Jarbas Bittencourt will be played on traditional instruments.

São Paulo native Mauricio Campos, artistic director of the Brazilian Arts Foundation in the Heights, has taken Capoeira from the studio back to the street. One of Vieira's students, Campos teaches and has his dancers perform at street fairs and festivals. No matter where it's performed, the spirit of Capoeira remains the same.

"It's about a freedom of expression and way of being alive at every moment," Campos says.

DANCEBRAZIL IN RITMO

Presented by Society for the Performing Arts

• When: 8 p.m. Thursday

• Where: Jones Hall, 615 Louisiana

• Tickets: $22-$52; 713-227-4772 or www.spahouston.org

Reprinted from The Houston Chronicle.

Review: WIT at The Texas Rep

Truthfully, I have been avoiding Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize winning play, Wit, for the same reason I waited until just recently to watch Schindler's List. I thought it would be too hard to watch, because you know, cancer is the ultimate downer. Well, I finally decided to suck it up and do the hard stuff and made it to see the Texas Rep's production of Wit.

It takes no such stamina to get through this play which is as funny as it is poignant. Edson's play traces the last year of professor Vivian Bearing, a professor of 17^th century poetry who specializes in the holy sonnets of John Donne. Does, “Death be not proud” ring a bell? It doesn't for much of the staff at the hospital where Vivian finds herself after being diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer. The colliding of the clinical and the poetic worlds make a rich soup here. Vivian's deconstruction of the dreaded question, “How are you doing today,” provides fodder for much analysis, contemplation, and endearing comedy.

Pamela Vogel is positively luminous as Vivian and reason alone to hop on I-45 and head north. Vogel captures Vivian's relentless intelligence in her razor-sharp performance. The play may be heavy, but she's light, charming, and portrays each deepening dilemma as if it were some kind of cosmic puzzle. Vogel takes us on Vivian's journey with the same kind of transcendence Donne employed. Justin O'Brien is convincing as Vivian's former student turned oncology researcher, and Jan Saenz nails the chipper nurse, Susie.

Julia Traber stays close to spare nature of the material, letting Vivian have the full stage for her well lived and ultimate death. Gregg Buck's sleek hospital room, along with Danielle Almeida Wilson's lighting, recreate a sterile hospital environment. Hardly a place to discuss Donne, nevermind die.

This is a splendid production of a great play—be a grown-up and go see it.

Wit continues until April 13. Call 281-583-7573 or visit www.texreptheatre.org.

Ensemble Blends Spontaneity, Substance: Leslie Scates and Lower Left

R/ARC/dabfoto

Leslie Scates
Photo By David Brown

Improvisation has gotten a bad rap in the dance world, sometimes rightly so, as audiences sit through hours of formless pieces. But it doesn't have to be that way, says Leslie Scates, Houston's leading improvisational-dance expert. Scates, along with a collective called Lower Left, will present an evening of such works Saturday at Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex.

In reality, experienced improvisers do not leave much to chance; they work with "scores," which serve as a set of instructions or rules, or a structure that holds the dance together.

"Really it's just like regular choreography, but hold the steps," Scates, 40, says. "We will be making those up that night.

Lower Left member Andrew Wass, 34, finds that simple scores work best. "You don't want the performers trying to remember the rules while they are dancing," says Wass, who will dance several pieces in the show. "Scores can include just about anything. For example, we may determine a path in space but not the movement it's going to take to get there."

For a new dance titled Open 15, Jeremy Choate's lighting design assumes the role of the score. The dancers know where the light will be and will fill in the rest during the performance. If it sounds open-ended, that's because it is; but in the hands of pros, it also can be terrifically exciting.

Despite its description, spontaneous dance requires hard work in the studio practicing "ensemble thinking," a concept developed by Nina Martin, one of Lower Left's founders and leading members.

Established in 1994, Lower Left is a group of like-minded dance improvisers and educators who present their work throughout the United States. Scates just returned from her third consecutive year at "March 2 Marfa," an invitation-only laboratory put on by Lower Left in Marfa.

"We learn to listen deeply so that we can choreograph instantaneously with skill and intention," Scates says. "This way, dancers compose together instead of improvising movement endlessly that may or may not produce an interesting composition."

"Marfa is not Improv 101," Wass quips. "It's more like graduate school."

Scates, a prominent local choreographer, has presented her work during two Diverseworks residencies and with Dominic Walsh Dance Theater. She became drawn to the improvisational process when she noticed that her own dancing and palette of ideas became vastly more interesting when she employed the practices she was learning in Marfa.

Scates will perform a duet with local dancer Sophia Torres called Untitled Falling, which uses a simple score involving eye contact, unforced partnering and falling. Though Torres and Scates will determine their actual movements during the performance, they've rehearsed diligently.

Improvisation takes as much rehearsal, if not more, than set choreography, Wass says.

"There's no movements or steps to hide behind. Also, with experienced practitioners, the audience can't tell if it's improvised or choreographed."

Scates admits it's unlikely for an audience to see complicated unison movement during an improvised dance. However, amazing moves that are nearly impossible to choreograph do happen.

"I prefer watching thinking dancers; I think the audience is more engaged and really drawn into the creative process," Scates says. "I want to see the choice-making going on. That's thrilling."

Reprinted from The Houston Chronicle.