Posted on: Tuesday, December 4, 2001
Dance Review
Dancers stand out individually in over-busy Leeward program
By Ana Paula Hofling
Special to The Advertiser
A one-night-only performance of Donald Byrd/The Group at Leeward Community College Theater on Thursday showcased talented dancers in a mixture of jazz dance, ballet, African-based movement and acrobatics. Sometimes these dance forms were juxtaposed, other times blended together, yet too often they were merely allowed to coexist.
"Folk Dance," the first piece, began with an abstraction of what could have been an Israeli folk dance — four dancers holding hands, step-ping rhythmically in unison, facing front, then making a circle. When the dancers broke out of the circle, they took none of the elements with them, starting a series of leg kicks and pirouettes that would only stop when the dancers resumed the position for their "folk dance."
The next piece, "A Gentle Prelude," evoked a 19th-century ballroom where young men and women vied for each other's attention, fell in love or just socialized. However, its difficult technical feats and lifts relied almost exclusively on ballet vocabulary, with an occasional back flip included between grand jetes.>This piece only came to life in a too-brief trio, when a dancer gathered up her long skirt and, flanked by two male dancers, let her hips move for the first time. In this brief section we saw ballet technique used with a purpose: The woman was lifted in ways that resemble the Lindy, and the dancers finally embodied a true fusion of dance styles.
"Jazz 1" from Byrd's "JazzTrain" (1998), was danced to a rich jdrum piece by Max Roach. It began with the dancers standing under converging beams of light, in silence. Gazing sternly towards the audience, they snap their fingers in unison, as if inviting the drumming to begin. Unfortunately, the connection between music and dance ended there.
The dancers, who were not shy about counting out loud and giving verbal directions to each other so they could dance together, didn't seem to be listening to the multi-layered drum music.
While the music ranged from subtle and delicate to loud and explosive, their movements lacked subtlety, relying almost exclusively on leg kicks, multiple turns and high lifts, maintaining the same high energy level for far too long.
Not all movement has to be big and difficult. Byrd draws from many dance forms but fails to make them converge.
Aside from a few rare moments where the movement was fresh and new, his choreography, using too many words, says nothing.
Ana Paula Hofling is a dancer, dance teacher and choreographer, pursuing an MFA at UH-Manoa.
