http://www.mercurynews.com/music/ci_171 ... ck_check=1
Contra Costa Times
01/16/2011
Contemporary Ballet: The Walnut Creek troupe opens its ninth season Friday with what it describes as two "emotionally charged" world premieres -- "Indoor Fireworks" by artistic director Charles Anderson and Benjamin Bowman (set to music by Elvis Costello), and "Ominous Rumblings of Discontent" by Maurice Causey (set to music by avant garde composer and artist Mikhail Karikis).
Details: 8 p.m. Jan. 21-22; Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek; $18-$40; 925-943-7469, www.lesherartscenter.org. Company C also performs Jan. 29-30 at Castro Valley Center for the Arts, Feb. 12-13 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in S.F., and March 19-20 at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts; more information is at www.companycballet.org.
http://www.companycballet.org/
http://companycballet.org/performances_current.html
Doing the Indoor Fireworks dance
-
Man out of Time
- Posts: 1876
- Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2007 8:15 am
- Location: just off the coast of Europe
- Contact:
Re: Doing the Indoor Fireworks dance
This article by Allan Ulrich was published at SFGate.com on January 24, 2011.
"Company C Contemporary Ballet review: no wincing
DANCE REVIEW
Since its founding almost a decade ago, Company C Contemporary Ballet has earned an admirable reputation for commissioning and incorporating dances for chamber forces from sundry choreographers: Where else in Northern California will you see vintage (or obscure) Twyla Tharp repertoire?
The trade-off lay in watching founding Artistic Director Charles Anderson refine his dance-making aspirations in public; this has not been a consistently edifying experience.
The happy news, as Company C launched its ninth season Friday evening in Walnut Creek's Lesher Center for the Arts, was that Anderson has brought the community another choreographer worth knowing. And, with a little help from a friend, Anderson has also delivered a pop ballet you can sit through without wincing.
The blissfully compact program will be repeated through the next two months in three Bay Area counties. The 10-member troupe, with several new recruits, looked wonderfully limber and carefully rehearsed on this occasion, despite an 11th hour dancer injury and repertoire adjustment.
Maurice Causey, whose "Ominous Rumblings of Discontent" was premiered Friday, comes to us from William Forsythe's Ballett Frankfurt, and the piece bears a superficial similarity in its menacing atmospherics to the output of his former boss.
But Causey derives tension, not from virtuoso pointe work, but from engaging the entire bodies of his eight dancers in exchanges that suggest a degree of improvisation. Mikhail Karikis' commissioned score, a gripping mix of instrumental sounds, electronics and vocalizations, seems an integral part of the project, as the dancers, all in slinky black and grays, occasionally respond to it with utterances of their own.
An apocalyptic aura envelops Causey's performers who melt into treacherous lifts, constantly rearrange their spatial universe, tantalize us with passing symmetries and iterate and reiterate key imagery. Dancers constantly hugging themselves evoke unendurable chill, rampant narcissism or a bit a both. Patrick Toebe's lighting scheme is a plus.
In contrast, Anderson and Benjamin B. Bowman have raided the recordings of Elvis Costello for their snappy, eight-part "Indoor Fireworks." The company in various shades of blue sportswear gambols through these numbers with genuine charm and not a hint of vulgarity.
Occasionally, the co-choreographers succumb to literal enactment of the lyrics, and they rarely probe beneath the surface. Yet, the freshness of the dancers' response can be disarming. Chantelle Pianetta skips insouciantly through "Veronica": Robert Dekkers, in "Baby Plays Around," channels any number of suave hoofers and all seems right in the world.
Less to this observer's taste was Daniel Ezralow's 2001 "Pulse," a company dance with little dancing. The performers slide into an illuminated space and gradually incorporate various gestures into their phrasing.
It seemed a waste of these artists' skills. Those were on display in a trio from James Sewell's "Appalachia Waltz," as Laura Dunlop, Kristen Lindsay and Jackie McConnell, all on pointe, seemed to engage in a public act of communion.
Company C Contemporary Ballet: Through Sun. Castro Valley Center for the Arts, 19501 Redwood Road, Castro Valley. $15-$17. (510) 889-8961. www.cvartsfoundation.org. Feb. 12-13. Novellus Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 700 Howard St., S.F. (415) 978-2728. $18-$40. www.ybca.org. March 19-20. Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. $18-$40. (650) 903-6000. www.mvcpa.com.
----
Also this article published in the San Francisco Bay Guardian (page 25) on February 9, 2011:
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 12
DANCE
Company C Contemporary Ballet
With a sampling of contemporary ballet from choreographers active across North America and Europe, Company C’s mixed-bill winter program includes a premiere set to the music of Elvis Costello by Artistic Director Charles Anderson in collaboration with Benjamin Bowman (both formerly of the New York City Ballet), and another by Maurice Causey, a former principal of William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt. Also appearing from the diverse repertory of this vibrant company is Tovernon, a solo work by David Anderson, the father of Charles Anderson, and Daniel Ezralow’s Pulse, during which dancers take running starts to slide across stage wearing socks. (Potter)
Sat/12, 8 p.m.; Sun/13, 2 p.m., $18-$40
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 701 Mission, SF (415) 978-2787 www.companycballet.org
MOOT
"Company C Contemporary Ballet review: no wincing
DANCE REVIEW
Since its founding almost a decade ago, Company C Contemporary Ballet has earned an admirable reputation for commissioning and incorporating dances for chamber forces from sundry choreographers: Where else in Northern California will you see vintage (or obscure) Twyla Tharp repertoire?
The trade-off lay in watching founding Artistic Director Charles Anderson refine his dance-making aspirations in public; this has not been a consistently edifying experience.
The happy news, as Company C launched its ninth season Friday evening in Walnut Creek's Lesher Center for the Arts, was that Anderson has brought the community another choreographer worth knowing. And, with a little help from a friend, Anderson has also delivered a pop ballet you can sit through without wincing.
The blissfully compact program will be repeated through the next two months in three Bay Area counties. The 10-member troupe, with several new recruits, looked wonderfully limber and carefully rehearsed on this occasion, despite an 11th hour dancer injury and repertoire adjustment.
Maurice Causey, whose "Ominous Rumblings of Discontent" was premiered Friday, comes to us from William Forsythe's Ballett Frankfurt, and the piece bears a superficial similarity in its menacing atmospherics to the output of his former boss.
But Causey derives tension, not from virtuoso pointe work, but from engaging the entire bodies of his eight dancers in exchanges that suggest a degree of improvisation. Mikhail Karikis' commissioned score, a gripping mix of instrumental sounds, electronics and vocalizations, seems an integral part of the project, as the dancers, all in slinky black and grays, occasionally respond to it with utterances of their own.
An apocalyptic aura envelops Causey's performers who melt into treacherous lifts, constantly rearrange their spatial universe, tantalize us with passing symmetries and iterate and reiterate key imagery. Dancers constantly hugging themselves evoke unendurable chill, rampant narcissism or a bit a both. Patrick Toebe's lighting scheme is a plus.
In contrast, Anderson and Benjamin B. Bowman have raided the recordings of Elvis Costello for their snappy, eight-part "Indoor Fireworks." The company in various shades of blue sportswear gambols through these numbers with genuine charm and not a hint of vulgarity.
Occasionally, the co-choreographers succumb to literal enactment of the lyrics, and they rarely probe beneath the surface. Yet, the freshness of the dancers' response can be disarming. Chantelle Pianetta skips insouciantly through "Veronica": Robert Dekkers, in "Baby Plays Around," channels any number of suave hoofers and all seems right in the world.
Less to this observer's taste was Daniel Ezralow's 2001 "Pulse," a company dance with little dancing. The performers slide into an illuminated space and gradually incorporate various gestures into their phrasing.
It seemed a waste of these artists' skills. Those were on display in a trio from James Sewell's "Appalachia Waltz," as Laura Dunlop, Kristen Lindsay and Jackie McConnell, all on pointe, seemed to engage in a public act of communion.
Company C Contemporary Ballet: Through Sun. Castro Valley Center for the Arts, 19501 Redwood Road, Castro Valley. $15-$17. (510) 889-8961. www.cvartsfoundation.org. Feb. 12-13. Novellus Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 700 Howard St., S.F. (415) 978-2728. $18-$40. www.ybca.org. March 19-20. Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. $18-$40. (650) 903-6000. www.mvcpa.com.
----
Also this article published in the San Francisco Bay Guardian (page 25) on February 9, 2011:
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 12
DANCE
Company C Contemporary Ballet
With a sampling of contemporary ballet from choreographers active across North America and Europe, Company C’s mixed-bill winter program includes a premiere set to the music of Elvis Costello by Artistic Director Charles Anderson in collaboration with Benjamin Bowman (both formerly of the New York City Ballet), and another by Maurice Causey, a former principal of William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt. Also appearing from the diverse repertory of this vibrant company is Tovernon, a solo work by David Anderson, the father of Charles Anderson, and Daniel Ezralow’s Pulse, during which dancers take running starts to slide across stage wearing socks. (Potter)
Sat/12, 8 p.m.; Sun/13, 2 p.m., $18-$40
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 701 Mission, SF (415) 978-2787 www.companycballet.org
MOOT