Dance review
'Ladies' Night Out' conveys power in motion
By Ana Paula Hofling
Special to The Advertiser
In "Ladies' Night Out," Tau Dance Theater's fifth anniversary season concerts this past Friday and Saturday nights, artistic director Peter Rockford Espiritu and associate artistic director Rachel Berman tapped into two rich resources: the power of women and the cultural diversity of Hawai'i.
Tau Dance Theater brought together dancers and choreographers from different generations and varying levels of experience for the concert. They shared one fundamental trait, as the concert title implies: womanhood.
In the dance world — where girls crowd the studios, yet the famous company directors, choreographers and teachers are mostly male — it was refreshing to see women not only as performers, but as the artistic voices themselves.
After the sweet, soft feminine sounds of Pua Melia Trio before the show and during intermission, I was brought to the edge of my seat with voices not so sweet, not so soft, yet powerfully female. The seven performers of guest company Halau O Kekuhi rose from the orchestra pit, inundating the audience with chant. When the ipu established the rhythm that propelled the dancers into movement, energy filled the Leeward Community College Theatre.
Powerful in an introspective way, Betsy Fisher's "Rosalia's Shadow" showed four intimate portraits of women: four solos danced to recordings by Billie Holiday, Deane Janis, Bessie Smith and Ella Fitzgerald.The women wore formal gowns from different decades, yet their solos spoke of the thoughts and feelings one might experience after one had come home from a festive evening.
Most of the works included song, and the movement often related to the song lyrics. Sometimes this was used to create a humorous effect, as in Beverly Blossom's "Dad's Ties," a delightful study in which Betsy Fisher methodically draped 22 colorful ties over her head, creating a "tie wig" (and later unveiled several more ties hanging from her crotch), to the accompaniment of Robert Goulet singing about his own memories.
Lori Ohtani, a guest choreographer and dancer, showed an Asian aspect of female power with "Equinox." Using the techniques of butoh, a Japanese contemporary dance style which developed in the 1950s as a reaction against Western cultural influence, Ohtani derives her power from the distorted and sometimes disturbing images characteristic of this dance form. Equinox also showed her training as a visual artist: the video projected during the piece complemented the movement and images created by the dancers, making the work cohesive and visually interesting.
The evening ended with the women of Taiko Center of the Pacific, led by Chizuko Endo, who proved that physical strength can be a feminine quality. In "Yodan Uchi," young girls and women brought to life intricate rhythms with precision, simultaneously performing complex choreographic patterns. Their physical commitment to music and movement was enough to make anyone want to learn taiko.
"Ladies' Night Out" began and ended with wonderful female energy, commitment and power. It made me proud to be a woman.
Ana Paula Hofling is a dancer, dance teacher and choreographer. She is pursuing an MFA in dance at the University of Hawai'i.
