One of the best things about having the UNC School of the Arts in our backyard is that we are the beneficiaries of an incredible outpouring of inventiveness and technical skill from faculty choreographers and student dancers.
"Winter Dance Concert," which opened Thursday night at the Stevens Center, includes three gems of the repertoire and a world premiere, all of which have something to recommend them. "Winter Dance" is presented by the School of Dance and the School of Design and Production.
First, the premiere: It is always exciting to be at the unveiling of a new work of art, and Diego Carrasco Schoch's "Voces" is just that. The cast of 15 dancers will vary from night to night but will be led consistently by Matt Foley, a soloist who demonstrates an amazing ability to articulate his body.
The piece begins with Foley working his way through a field of six dancers accompanied by eerie bells, rattles and other percussion instruments recorded by John Wilson; then more lyrical music by Eric Schwartz chimes in, and that morphs into the party sounds of Los Lobos. In the second part of the piece, more dancers take the stage in a rollicking celebration of community and diversity.
There is more music by Wilson and Schwartz and gorgeous vocals by Diana Tuffin.
"Voces" is performed in stocking feet, which is fairly unusual, but it makes the piece feel softer than a dance done in slippers and more polished than one done with bare feet. The whole dance has a joyful, slightly animalistic (but not bestial) feeling to it. And there is a wonderful shoulder movement used that is simultaneously dynamic and playful. The lighting design by Kyle Grant was notable.
George Balanchine's "Symphonie Concertante" (music by Mozart) uses 25 dancers in icy white and blue costumes against a darker blue background. Dawn Atkins and Emma Kate Tilson acquitted themselves well in the leading roles, and Ben Rudisin showed himself to be a double threat, able to achieve altitude and to ably partner the women on the ground. Their pas de trios in the second part was particularly captivating with its series of underarm, revolving attitudes.
"Gazebo Dance," choreographed by James Kudelka to circus-sounding music by John Corigliano, was a crowd-pleaser with its comic figures and raucous accompaniment, but this mostly-lighthearted piece had a sober side.
In a pas de deux , Daina Gingras danced with one hand covering her eyes while her partner, Dave Naquin, danced with his hand over his mouth. It had the effect not so much of the characters being handicapped as choosing not to see or speak. It was the choice that made everything they did look more difficult and constricted while, at the same time, quite beautiful and poignant
The show ended with another great crowd-pleaser, Alwin Nikolais' "Gallery." The black-lit, day-glo classic from 1978 didn't seem at all dated. With strong use of costuming, "Gallery" sometimes looked like scenes from a human kaleidoscope, sometimes like clowns from "Yellow Submarine," sometimes like a strange, many-headed monster — and always entertaining, as was the entire evening.
It doesn't get much better than this. And at these prices, you can't afford not to go.
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