Well, if that didn't just make up for the day.
New trend in my life: I say I want to go do something... and I go do it. I love this feeling and must capture it.
A few years ago, I found an article in the Reno News & Review about the local theater season- what was on where, how much, and a review of each play. I think that year I only made it to the Seussical musical, but I brought Ant. Ever since, I've had my eyes peeled for affordable shows. I love going to pretty much anything except concerts at the Knitting Factory, but then, I'm not big on standing on a concrete floor for hours holding my coat and my purse, trying to test with one hand, looking like a flamingo while I try to rest one of my two hurting feet, being leaned on by drunk people. But okay, I saw Primus and Ani there. Different times, of course, but Chris and I always thought the two of them would make some interesting political music together.
I had to go to UNR's spring dance concert in... wow, was that 2010? Must have been, because I had to write a paper on it. Apparently I have missed it for the last two years, and I also have yet to catch their version of the choreography contest- I really want to see that. I have come to UNR to watch dance, theater, and music- remember when I took Ant and Chris with me to watch Hamlet in the original pronunciation? HAHAHAHAHA They did really good- both of them, and we had a good discussion afterwards, but I could not understand much and neither could they. It sure showed that language is not that important to know what's going on in a play.
But Jennyway. I'm at home on my couch, I've had my beer (finally), and I am about to tell you about UNR's 2013 Spring Dance Concert. If anyone other than Tracy finds dance reviews interesting, read on.
You ought to Google some Cari Cunningham. She was a guest speaker/instructor during my Dance Criticism (what the hell was it called) class. Her work is characterized by synchronized ladies doing unsynchronized things. They're usually drifting around the stage perpendicular to each other, flopping and bowing like awakened dolls. The first dance, Larger Than Life, had these dolls dressed up like 50's housewives with their feet in paper grocery bags. They would smile and take imaginary things out of the bags like they were unloading groceries, and strewn around the stage were more grocery bags, closed and folded to look like houses with a little door cut open in front to show a battery-powered candle. Stepping in and out of the grocery bags, or shuffling around in them, then picking up some of the house bags and
putting them on their heads, these dancing live dolls rejected the pretty picture and wondered who they were, really. A couple of the houses were crushed and stomped on a little; the others were left intact.
Cari's second dance was called Fractured Whole, and had more of those Cari elements which always includes some really neat music. The song is a crescendo that starts very disharmonic and seemingly unrelated, but creates a sentence by adding layers. I thought the first dance was more Cari and more interesting, but what I liked about this one was that as the music built up and up, the girls onstage picked up the beat and really got into it. It looked like it was fun to dance.
Barbara Land is the head UNR dance lady who is retiring and choreographed two of the dances. She's also who taught my class. I think I was more impressed by her in 2010. This year she choreographed Kaleidoscope, which showcased pretty ballerinas to guitar music. The music was a good choice and the dance was lively, but I was always bored by the pretty ballerina dances. Her other dance was New Beginnings, which is appropriate because she is retiring to go work in the Amazon full time, as she has been doing part time for years, but this dance was odd. All the girls were dressed up in pink skirt versions of the Arabian costume, complete with the veil and the coins that made noise as they shimmied across the stage. What was weird was seeing the arms doing these snakelike motions while the legs did their classic ballerina toe shoes moves. The other weird thing is that they all stayed in a group, doing moves together or in lines like... classic ballerina moves. I was waiting for the weirdness, the writhing to begin, but they never separated or did anything to create a balance with unevenness. I was also confused to see at least half of these girls in soft shoes. I know she is used to having to make pretty dances for her ballerinas, but I swear the dances I saw before were more interesting.
Kristen Avansino. Google her. She was also one of my guest speakers in class. Cari has this approachability, but Kristen is a little out there. I remember the girls in my class (mostly dancers) talking about how weird Kristen was. One dancer agreed, but said she loves dancing her stuff. I agreed upon seeing her 2010 dance full of Amazon warriors. Her dances are comprised of delightful, buggy, alien weirdness. Nobody knows what the hell is going on during an Avansino dance. You should have heard the audience members around me. Her dance is called The Wake Up and comes with an explanation: "Together but alone. Two and Three confront two forces which ignite an awakening." Yes, what the hell does that mean? It doesn't help explain the dance. It could have just as easily described the foods I eat when I wake up crashing and my brain's too slow to think reasonably. One thing I've noticed about her dances is that it looks like she peruses the costume department, picks out all the things she likes, then tries to figure out how they could possibly work together. One dancer had this beautiful long magenta tutu (What do you call a long tutu?) and everyone else wore bulky black spacesuit shirts (that looked like they had cargo pockets storing lots of important space tools) and moved slowly around the stage. At one point, our fearless astronauts (sitting on children's chairs in a circle) put on caps with little mirrors all over them. Any audience members still trying to take it seriously gave up at that point. Ah, but there's something so wonderful about this. There's something for everyone: pretty ballerinas, contemporary feminist statements, and complete and utter weirdness. How fun is that?
But this dance concert also featured special guest artists from Giordano Dance Chicago, and holy shit were you right, Tracy. They were AMAZING. Fabulous dancers, but AGGGHHH the choreography. Least favorite was Wings, which seemed to describe the male dancer's pants. Hang on while I have my own laugh at that. This was one where I appreciated the dancer's ability more than the choreography. Second favorite was Gravity, which felt like every other couple's dance until these unbelievably sexy, feeling-like-we're-intruding, yielding moves towards the end. Wow. By FAR the best was the excerpt from Sabroso. I saw how important arms and specifically hands are in Latin dancing and this was so good that it looked like a couple just out dancing together spontaneously. There were many moves like from the Sugar Plum pas de deux, but the way they put complicated lifts back to back to back was phenomenal. Everyone was hooting and hollering after that, and some of them couldn't wait until the end.
And then there's this surprise at the end by Martin Ortiz Tapia, who is from the GDC, called La ruta a sequir. It was performed by UNR dancers and made me think of spring. The music was fun, the dancing was light and interesting, and the costumes were all earthy but different. They got into the beat on that one too, and were clearly having too much fun. The weirdest part (Take note, Kristen) was when these two guys ran in, each holding a girl up by her neck alone. The girls were lying back, resting all their weight on their guy's hand, but with their knees bent and running along backwards to keep up. Shins straight up, the rest of them parallel to the floor. If this conjures up some bizarre Dali image, imagine how weird it was to see it in person. I just looked up "la ruta a sequir" and it means "the way forward." Kristen, someone has taken your cake.
