DanceMagazine.com
Latin Choreographers Festival 2008
By Lori Ortiz
Teatro IATI (International Theater Arts Institute, New York)
July 24–27, 2008
Teatro IATI (International Theater Arts Institute, New York)
July 24–27, 2008
Fresh breezes cooled the small East Village theater opening night. In a two hour program, the first Latin Choreographers Festival breathed pioneering spirit. Founder, curator, and ballet dancer Ursula Verduzco aimed to introduce New York dance lovers to emerging Latino artists. This engaging program reflected the cultural mix of the Americas. Each of 12 ballet-based modern and contemporary works crossed genres as well as cultural boundaries.
The eye opener was Mexican choreographer Jaciel Neri’s solo Life Steps. While drawn from folkloric tradition, it also flirted with hip hop and samba. The result could not be pigeonholed. Though he didn’t travel much on the small stage, he performed his riveting solo using imaginative costumes and evocative movement to suggest extreme moments. He hit bottom three times to the sound of breaking glass. Neri arranged his wonderful layered costumes to suggest female and b-boy characters. His hips swiveled while he rocked his clasped, bound fists over the large heart appliqué on his sweater. Meanwhile, carnivalesque streamers sprouted from his knit cap that morphed into a mask.
Javier Dzul performed his striking solo Itzama in only briefs. Glistening and built, he took on reptilian forms. Frog-like belching in Antonio Zepeda’s music gave double meaning to the word “riveting.” In the denouement, snake-like, he undulated his upper torso and cocked his head with the utmost seriousness. One could imagine venom spewing. In El Viaje, a duet for Dzul and his wife Robin, his intensity overwhelmed.
Alexandra Gonzales’ energetic and invested performance in Scarred, by Frances Ortiz, evoked the horrid, the irreversible. She danced as though boxed in, thrusting her angular arms and legs and stretching into repeated, impossible shapes. It was painful to watch. In Yesid Lopez’s Tengo Que Decirte Algo(I have something to tell you) for Saki Masuda, a note came via an unseen messenger in the wing. We were left in the dark about its content, which was part of the dance’s appeal. A blithe, charming Masuda ran and leapt, her head effortlessly tilted back. She was after happiness itself.
The program began and ended with two satisfying duets: Dueto by Annabella Gonzalez and Ortiz’s Frayed Ends. Lopez’s well choreographed and performed prayerful trio created wonderful geometry on the black box stage. A translation in the program of Watashi No Omoide, Benjamin Briones’s bold venture into Japonisme for three, would have helped convey his Tudoresque plot about an old woman’s memories, featuring kimonos and Verduzco’s impressive pointework. The same trio performed Briones’ Muga. It was doomed by a bland music choice. Karina Lesko’s La Tierra De Mi Ser ably managed a cast of five including herself, an excellent dancer. Verduzco’s short Absence, which may be a thinly veiled portrait of the dancing life, rushed to its pitiable resolution.
The evening underscored dance’s universality rather than specific, Latino stereotypes. The new annual festival is a good start.
The eye opener was Mexican choreographer Jaciel Neri’s solo Life Steps. While drawn from folkloric tradition, it also flirted with hip hop and samba. The result could not be pigeonholed. Though he didn’t travel much on the small stage, he performed his riveting solo using imaginative costumes and evocative movement to suggest extreme moments. He hit bottom three times to the sound of breaking glass. Neri arranged his wonderful layered costumes to suggest female and b-boy characters. His hips swiveled while he rocked his clasped, bound fists over the large heart appliqué on his sweater. Meanwhile, carnivalesque streamers sprouted from his knit cap that morphed into a mask.
Javier Dzul performed his striking solo Itzama in only briefs. Glistening and built, he took on reptilian forms. Frog-like belching in Antonio Zepeda’s music gave double meaning to the word “riveting.” In the denouement, snake-like, he undulated his upper torso and cocked his head with the utmost seriousness. One could imagine venom spewing. In El Viaje, a duet for Dzul and his wife Robin, his intensity overwhelmed.
Alexandra Gonzales’ energetic and invested performance in Scarred, by Frances Ortiz, evoked the horrid, the irreversible. She danced as though boxed in, thrusting her angular arms and legs and stretching into repeated, impossible shapes. It was painful to watch. In Yesid Lopez’s Tengo Que Decirte Algo(I have something to tell you) for Saki Masuda, a note came via an unseen messenger in the wing. We were left in the dark about its content, which was part of the dance’s appeal. A blithe, charming Masuda ran and leapt, her head effortlessly tilted back. She was after happiness itself.
The program began and ended with two satisfying duets: Dueto by Annabella Gonzalez and Ortiz’s Frayed Ends. Lopez’s well choreographed and performed prayerful trio created wonderful geometry on the black box stage. A translation in the program of Watashi No Omoide, Benjamin Briones’s bold venture into Japonisme for three, would have helped convey his Tudoresque plot about an old woman’s memories, featuring kimonos and Verduzco’s impressive pointework. The same trio performed Briones’ Muga. It was doomed by a bland music choice. Karina Lesko’s La Tierra De Mi Ser ably managed a cast of five including herself, an excellent dancer. Verduzco’s short Absence, which may be a thinly veiled portrait of the dancing life, rushed to its pitiable resolution.
The evening underscored dance’s universality rather than specific, Latino stereotypes. The new annual festival is a good start.
"LIFE STEPS"
Choreography & Dancer: Jaciel Neri
Photo By: Rachel Neville
"LA TIERRA DE MI SER"
Choreography: Karina Lesko
Karina Lesko&Francesco La Macchia
Photo By: Rachel Neville
REVIEWS
"MUGA"
Choreography: Benjamin Briones
Dancers: Heidi Green&Richard Ye
Photo By: Rachel Neville
"TENGO ALGO QUE DECIRTE..."
Choreography: Yesid Lopez
Dancer: Saki Masuda
Photo By: Rachel Neville
Forum Artistico
The Latin Choreographers Festival 2009
An Evening of Dance and Theater
By Nadine Lavi
Saturday July 25, 2009
The Latin Choreographers Festival at the Teatro Iati at 64 E.4th Street in NY, currently in its second year, and is the brainchild of Ursula Verduzco, dancer and choreographer. It showcases Latin choreographers, and some unique Latino perspectives on life and love, to an appreciative audience.
Last year boasted some quality dancing, notably from Lucia Campoy in Dueto, from the Annabella Gonzalez Dance Theater repertory. Ms.Campoy’s stage presence and her mastery of stillness was compelling, and evident in each step placed with care, pirouettes and leaps done with energy, and an expressive visage. Her dancing showed a range of emotions married to movement in a pleasing harmony.
This year’s performances were similarly pleasing, with some interesting conceptualizations and themes. In Habibi Hhaloua by Roman Baca/Exit 12 Dance Company, Baca, who hails from Mexico, seems to have drawn on his own experiences as a Marine for this number. In it the dancers brought to life an unusual concept: the soldier at war who envisions a romantic fantasy as an escape from the ugliness around him. Clad in army fatigues, Kendahl Ferguson partnered Lisa Fitzgerald, who appeared wearing a flowing red dress, as if from out of a dream. The background music included some melodies by Y. Islam and R. Schumann, along with the Voices of TOW Platoon 25th Marines on the radio, which made for a very realistic contrast to the soldier’s far away longings. There were some nice lifts and poses and the number ended in a rather dramatic manner, with a gunshot, and the soldier’s dead body on the ground, and an effective end to dreams of love and home.
In La Calma by Minou Lallemand/Onium Ballet Project, the Columbian choreographer offered a contemporary piece, in which the two female dancers were flowing and expressive to the music of Pepe Raphael and the Bottle Blondes.
In Vieja Ciudad de Hierro, with music by Rodrigo Gonzales & Maldita Vecindad, Benjamin Briones, a choreographer who is making a name for himself, showed a unique vision. He captured the drama her experienced during his youth on the streets of Mexico, when he struggled to claim territory to sell car parts among street toughs in an impoverished neighborhood. In a series of vignettes, Briones emphasizes the themes of love, sex, money and violence and how they either mesh or come into conflict. Ms. Verduzco, who danced this number, appeared in a red dress, with a red flower in her flowing hair, and danced enticingly. This was followed by various comings together—of men, women, in couple and in groups, and even a little Samba number in the middle. There was some pretty choreography to be seen, along with nice lifts and good partnering by Frederick Davis, an expressive dancer, whom, it would seem, has as yet untapped talents lying beneath the surface of a strong and expansive presence. The impression of the entire number was one that emphasized the vibrancy, calm, passion, and energy of life in Mexico at the time.
In Yet Still Untitled with music by David Darling, and choreography by Ted Thoman/Thomas/Ortiz Dance, two mirrors were used to good effect, as two women and one man engaged in a series of lifts and jumps, coming together and separating again.
Cain by Robert Olvera seemed part experimental theater/part dance, and was fraught with emotion. The costume alone was intruiging in terms of theater.
Shall We Dance by Yeside Lopez/Yesid & Company, brought comic relief with a well-
choreographed pas de deux for Marina Fabila and Lopez. The soprano’s aria, sung by Felicie Huni-Mihaecsek, emphasized both the strident nature of a relationship and the relief when the couple makes up. To see the “violent” altercations contrasted with the “civilized” waltzing, was quite amusing.
Getting There… choreographed by Ursula Verduzco, to Inquisition Symphony, was a pas de deux in which the theme of yearning for something better seemed to be featured. Ms. Verduzco says it’s a dance between life, represented by her partner, and herself, and how “people allow life to run their lives instead of taking charge.” Frederick Davis was an able partner, and the two dancers had a nice chemistry.
In Mediterranea by Pedro Ruiz to the music of Houria Aichi, Ellenore Scott danced a seductive, Arabian themed number.
The evening’s program ended with Picking up the Pieces by Jesus Pacheco, to the music of John Mayer and Amos Lee, featured three women, of whom Nicole Correa, a former dancer with Ballet Memphis, made the greatest impression for the clarity of her technique and her lovely lines.
There is another performance tomorrow at 3pm; go catch this festival if you can.
copyright©NadineLavi2009 for Forum Artistico
