Dance Kaleidoscope continues extending promise of post-pandemic brilliance with "Edge of Innovation"

 

Strength and precision: Emily Dyson aloft in "iconoGlass."

"Edge of Innovation" as a title readies Dance Kaleidoscope audiences for the two new works that make up the first half of its current program at Indiana Repertory Theatre. But the crown jewel in the show, which runs through Sunday, is a 1998 David Hochoy piece I've now written about three times.

"iconoGlass" hasn't lost its stunning quality for me. It is so vivid a realization of a choreographed response to the music of Philip Glass that it tempts me to think there is no better way to listen to Glass than when it's accompanied by DK dancers presenting Hochoy's choreography. I don't remember the 1998 premiere, but have been thrilled by seeing the work in 2013 and 2015.

In intermission remarks Thursday evening, artistic director Hochoy admitted that a creative spur with "iconoGlass" was to make a piece that would push his dancers to their limits: The edge of innovation in this case was to be, to the performers, also the edge of exhaustion. Extensive changes of personnel since this century's mid-teens again confirm that this modern-dance troupe retains its virtuosity and freshness.

The "repetitive structures" on which Glass builds his compositions run along a spectrum that encompasses both formal and spontaneous moods. Why choose between Apollo and Dionysus when you can call upon both gods, using Glass' minimalism as a vehicle?  That's what the choreography does here: Hieratic poses and a ceremonious mien consort with restless, flowing movement. The music, of course, models that combination. The worlds of both the mystical opera "Satyagraha" and Glass's pop side come into play. 

Without producing the impression of continually interrupting himself, Hochoy in "iconoGlass" brings his

Stuart Coleman and Paige Robinson in "iconoGlass."

lyrical gifts to bear, sometimes momentarily, upon movement that is relentless, varied and requiring pinpoint precision. The work is full of interactions that, if they looked just a little bit off, would fail utterly. "iconoGlass" is unfailingly unified, with Thursday's performance fused perfectly with Cheryl Sparks' costumes and Laura E. Glover's lighting. 

All four professional performances of "Edge of Innovation" have prelude exhibitions of DK's ensemble classes. This outreach development has been facilitated by the troupe's having its own home with studios where its educational side can flourish. Thursday's was Ballet to be succeeded tonight by Hip-Hop, Saturday by Jazz, and Sunday by Junior ensembles.

The program opened with a new work by Justin David Sears, artistic director of the Phoenix Rising Dance Company. "CULTURESCAPE" presents its mission in the all-caps title, and Sears' program note centers the work's import on "breaking rules," as Sears told Thursday's audience — rules that direct young people's search for identity along approved channels and discourage forging individual identities. I have a feeling those rules already are in decline across society, but there's no doubt that youth are still being imprinted to different degrees by needlessly narrow perspectives from family, school, religion, and peers.

Seeking identity to believe in: "CULTURESCAPE"

In any case, Sears' choreography tends to crowd how he represents individual struggles for validation. The troupe displays a broad variety of movement, broken down and sometimes echoed from dancer to dancer. There is arresting choreography on the complications of seeking identity: mimicry of convulsions and other involuntary or forced gestures: lots of round-the-head arm movement — a kind of boxing-in of personal space to emphasize separation — and other ways of communicating the struggle of individuality to emerge. 

There's so much to take in, but the troupe's command of its varied tasks keeps the centrifugal force from getting out of control. When the search moves toward fulfillment, six of the cast of eight present a model of unity around a shared goal. The scattershot feeling of "CULTURESCAPE"'s long first section is cast aside for ensemble cohesion and closing the space.  The two most vigorously individualized dancers join in the implied celebration. Moving beyond regimentation wins the day.

With Dance Kaleidoscope taking the stage, guest choreographer Lalah Ayan makes a nice bridge between

Justin Rainey and Kieran King in "Age of Agile."

the two locally generated pieces. "Age of Agile" reflects some of the pressures to own one's space that "CULTURESCAPE" focuses on, but with freedom as a keynote from early on. Buoyancy is never deflated. The governing pace and the abundance of stage crossings suggest that the space is infinite, that what we see on the One America Stage is just a cross-section of a dominant agility celebrated in the title. 

We are invited to imagine it goes on out of sight beyond the wings. There are leaps and lifts punctuating a wealth of running. The ambiguity between running from something and running to something is piquantly balanced. Laura Glover's distribution of light and shade in enchanting patterns complements the work's vitality, which we in the audience are invited to catch "on the run," taking delight in it as it passes.

[Photos by Lora Olive]




 


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