Lar Lubovitch Dance Company: 11/22/08

Dvorak Serenade

This performance was a brilliant example of virtue and virtuosity in modern dance at it's finest, IMHO! I was spellbound and wanted more, more, more. It's got to be rare to enjoy every single movement and every single dancer and not have one even slightly negative thing to say about anything that I saw or heard in a single night of dance; it was perfection. I mean, no one and nothing had a weakness. Sometimes, I just don't appreciate the cor., the music, the costumes or something like the venue itself. Sometimes, I feel like a dancer makes it [the cor.] look like work b/c I can see the effort behind the movement, or the movement looks odd on a certain body type, or a dancer is unable to move between shades of lightness/lyricism and darkness, or their line doesn't continue all the way through, which was not the case with this ensemble. Lest I sound like a complete and total, prejudiced, nit-picking ass, I'm just saying that in my heart and soul, this was one of the finest examples of modern dance to date that satisfied whatever it is inside of me that responded to whatever it was that was done at that performance; they possessed a level of refinement that is not always found in every performance.  

One thing that struck a chord within me was the cor. in Men's Stories. It was beautiful and flowing like water with lots of circular movement being used to create the story. I'm saying that they literally and figuratively danced circles around each other or with each other throughout the entire piece versus the typical linear style of cor. Twyla Tharp has some cor. like that in parts of Duece Coupe but not as much as in this piece. The men kept creating these beautiful, repeating circles and shapes with their port des bras. I can't stop typing the word circle. 

What was unique about the cor. was that it was designed so that the movement from one dancer or groups of dancers to the next were contiguous. If one group or individual started a circle or other pattern with their arms, the next performer continued that shape or movement as their arms would duplicate or replicate that shape directly in front of or behind that dancer. It was fascinating to discover where this would occur and how many different dancers were going to continue the pattern before the cor. changed into something else. The point of all this seemed to be to show a connection between everything and everyone in the dance from past, present to future. It also made me think that Lar's is a genius choreographer.  

Men's Stories [male cast only] was probably 45+ minutes in length and after a while started to put me in a trance. It felt like I was being hypnotized by all of the gentle, swaying and circular arm movements and the dancer's hands. I believe the dancers were grouped together based on size, shape or length of their limbs, which had to have been wisely considered to create a look of symmetry. When these dancers purposely duplicated each other's movements, they were incredibly in sync and aligned, which was integral to the cor.

  

I haven't seen American Ballet Theater dance any contemporary or modern work as a company b/c they always present the classical ballets when in Chicago so I can't judge them; however, I have seen the San Francisco Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Luna Negra Dance Theater, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Complexions, Alvin Ailey, several lesser known troupes, and the Martha Graham Dance Co. (aka mother of modern dance) perform modern dance in the last 13 months. Out of those performances, tonight's favorable critique is the result of a high degree of seemingly effortless technique combined with great artistry, musicality and kick-ass choreography, which put Lar Lubovitch's work and company at the top of my list. Clearly, emotions are transient, and I will continue to be blown away by various artists and/or performances in the future. It's never all black and white; there are shades of gray. But I'm gonna savor and store the memories of this night for awhile. After all, I couldn't have experiences like this if I hadn't seen every one of those previous company's performances.

I felt all of the cor. that night had a similar theme of being contiguous, harmonious, lyrical and flowing. Often times, I hear people complaining about how choreography is stolen from some other work, and I don't know if Mr Lubovitch did that, but what I saw was a fantastic revelation of artistry and symmetry. Hat's off to Lars Lubovitch and his wonderfully, talented company dancers: Jonathan E. Alsberry, Mucuy Bolles, Atilla J. Csiki, Kurt Douglas, Jay Franke, Susana Garcia, Charlaine M. Katsuyoshi, Brian McGinnis, Scott Rink, Kevin Scarpin, Katarzyna Skarpetowska, George Smallwood, Christopher Vo, & Katherine Wells.

Info below taken from Harris Theater Website:

One of America’s most acclaimed choreographers and Chicago native Lar Lubovitch returns home with his company's 40th Anniversary Tour. The Harris Theater will present Men’s Stories, Lubovitch’s powerful exploration of masculinity, biography and character, selected as a winner of a 2008 touring award by the National Dance Project. Lubovitch has described the work as “a dance that opens up, like a book, to reveal the story of the men inside the dance.” "...and Dvorak Serenade, a 2007 work praised by the Financial Times at its world premiere as “…one of Lubovitch’s big, sweeping ensemble works, the sort he does best.”

Info taken from here:

Lubovitch's "Jangle" has been receiving premiere performances on tour preceding the company's engagement this week at New York's City Center. In stark contrast to the white costumes and Classicism of the Mozart piece, "Jangle" - subtitled Four Hungarian Dances - finds company members dressed in casual street attire and responding to folk-tinged pieces by Bartok (Rhapsodies Nos. 1 and 2 for Violin and Piano).

The activity travels from communal earthiness - twirling figures and upheld arms not far from the world of "Fiddler on the Roof" - to muscular solos and a duet of unconventional lifts and turns. In the finale, the company performs beckoning gestures and wild flights, with the piece's nimble soloist, Jonathan E. Alsberry, landing in front at the curtain.

Jangle (2008): Four Hungarian Dances
Choreography: Lar Lubovitch

Men’s Stories (2000): A Concerto in Ruins
Choreography: Lar Lubovitch

Dvorák Serenade (2007)
Choreography: Lar Lubovitch