Dayton City Paper » dance

City smooth

Arnecia Patterson — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 14:00:06 +0000

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company presents Urban Impulse

By Arnecia Patterson

Photo: [l to r] Rebecca Sparks Vargas and H.D. Horner III in DCDC’s Urban Impulse; photo credit: Scott Robbins

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company’s polish has acquired heirloom patina over the years. The dancers are ϋber-fit, and in performance they make artistic choices that are readily encouraged by lively audience response. DCDC concerts are known for the noise-making on the house side of the footlights – gasps, claps, shout-outs – heard over blaring music in response to dancers who ignite the stage.

Urban Impulse, its two-performance concert takes place Saturday June 8 at 3 and 8 p.m., at Stivers’ Centennial Hall. The program features a hip-hop dance by renowned choreographer Rennie Harris and a new work by choreographer Kiesha Lalama. Both choreographers’ urban impulses are well-fed. Harris’ long-time base is Philadelphia – a diverse metropolis filled with East Coast, big city stimuli – and Lalama is an associate professor at Point Park University in downtown Pittsburgh. When DCDC performs, these urban influences will give Dayton audiences an evening of concert dance that traverses the skyline and traipses the asphalt of an imagined, choreographed urbanscape.

Convincing Dayton audiences to go to the theater to see an art form that New Yorkers cut their teeth on is a challenge. While contemporary dance is a fixture on the stages of St. Marks, the Joyce Theatre and City Center in Manhattan – where there are hundreds of choreographers and dancers with long slates of artistic credibility influenced by an urban zenith – the Midwest and Dayton, Ohio have proven to be the hinterlands for contemporary dance craft and performance, DCDC’s specialties. To address the challenge of providing the public with a taste of high-quality dance flavored with uniqueness, Debbie Blunden-Diggs – artistic director of DCDC – asked choreographer Kiesha Lalama to create “a work that would truly impact and touch our youth from ages 18-35.”

Over the years Blunden-Diggs has kept in touch with Lalama and watched her choreography develop. In addition to teaching at Point Park University, Lalama worked on the choreography for the 2012 coming-of-age film, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” featuring Emma Watson and Kate Walsh. Finally, Blunden-Diggs decided that the Urban Impulse program was the right time to tap into her talents.

“She has a reputation for being able to create works that speak to the intersection of the classical and contemporary,” said Blunden-Diggs. The result is a dance entitled “Shed” set to techno and percussive music. The movements range from fast to slow and blend sharp with curvaceous – a testament of Lalama’s agile vocabulary. “Shed” shows the dancers controlled in slow-motioned movement and strong in extended flexibility held in posé to show a clear picture of the dancers’ physiques. According to Blunden-Diggs, “Keisha addresses the crossing of boundaries in urban America right now, and that is a core idea of this concert.”

“Jacob’s Ladder,” another feature of the Urban Impulse concert, was created by Rennie Harris whose name and reputation is famously synonymous with urban movement in professional dance circles. As concert dance goes, Harris’ body of work is, arguably, the single, most influential among hipsters and urbanites. His trademark choreography has migrated from the streets of Philadelphia to formal stages in theaters around the world and inherited the unlikely path that he has wended: from street dancer in the late 1970s, to recipient of two honorary Ph.D.s, conferred on him by Bates College and Columbia College. He choreographed “Jacob’s Ladder” for DCDC in 2007. Its smooth moves crescendo into something increasingly fast and ultimately exciting against a backdrop of city scenes projected onto the stage. “There’s a point near the end of Rennie’s piece when projections are rapidly firing and the entire cast is on stage. Four dancers slide into the floor and pedal their legs as if they were being chased on their sides. That has always been my favorite moment in the piece,” said Blunden-Diggs. “Jacob’s Ladder” is choreographed to the kind of house music that might be heard in the wee, sweaty hours at a dance club or in a rocking, just-before-dawn crowd at an underground party; however, audiences will see sophistication on stage – the result of urban provocation put on classically-trained artists.

DCDC’s feat is to convey a dance genre which, generally, does not depend on narrative to engross the viewer. Its beauty can be obtuse and subjective. The dancers and choreographers exploit tensions in music and movement, visual and aural, weight and levity, and hope that people in the audience find a place of satisfaction in the expertly crafted mixture. The dances featured in Urban Impulse add the dichotomy between street style and formalism.

Blunden-Diggs said, “Audiences may see movements that are sharp or twisted, because those movements mirror qualities in street forms, or urban in the way dancers use the ground. The cool attitudes of dancers, while they execute such difficult movements, create a tension that can be felt in their interactions with each other onstage.”

Another dance company in a different city might find the negotiation of such an artistic minefield daunting; however, DCDC knows contemporary entertainment. Over the years it has left the proof on stages around the world: dancers, choreographers and audiences always enjoy the show.

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company’s Urban Impulse concert will be held Saturday, June 8, 3 and 8 p.m. at Centennial Hall, Stivers School for the Arts, 1313 E. Fifth St. For ticket information call Ticket Center Stage at 937.228.3630 or 888.228.3630 or online at ticketcenterstage.com. For more information on DCDC, visit dcdc.org.

Reach DCP freelance writer Arnecia Patterson at ArneciaPatterson@DaytonCityPaper.com.

The DNA of contemporary dance

Arnecia Patterson — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:00:38 +0000

DCDC2 presents ‘The Ways of Humanity’

By Arnecia Patterson

Photo: DCDC2 presents “The Ways of Humanity” program on Sunday April, 28 at UD’s Boll Theatre; photo credit: William H. Crenshaw

The word humanity conjures a variety of images and thoughts depending on the forum where the discussion takes place. On Sunday, April 28 at 4 p.m. in the University of Dayton’s Boll Theatre, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company 2, the repertory-training ensemble of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, will create a forum featuring eight contemporary dances by choreographers who have history or are currently dancing with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. In its concert, “The Ways of Humanity,” artistic license and creativity will reference a range of experiences that could fall under the concert’s title – female body image, love, pain, surrender, death. Combine that with contemporary dance’s reputation for borrowing movement from the world of what’s happening now and its penchant for subverting precious classical dance language into prosaic steps as weighted with emotion and thought as they are with the moving body. Together, the reputation of the art form and the declaration of the program, “The Ways of Humanity,” may add yet another layer of meaning to what viewers think about when considering humanity – a layer of movement. The concert’s aim, according to its program guide, of “connecting to the breadth and depth of the human spirit,” is a dance performance. On a Sunday afternoon, in the darkened Boll Theatre, it will be up to the dancers of DCDC2 to elicit those moments of connection between people in the audience and the humanity embedded in the crafted dances they will perform.

As the pre-professional training company of DCDC, the second company uses dancers who fall into a storied hybrid – part student/part performer who undertake thankless rigor in pursuit of the next opportunity to present personal accomplishment as the center of attention. According to Shonna Hickman-Matlock, the director of DCDC2, dancers train for “professional field experience that provides a realistic perspective on the artistic and professional challenges of careers in dance.” Right now, the company is comprised of 18 women and one man, ranging in ages from 18 to 27. Some have local lives as undergraduate dance students at Wright State University and Sinclair Community College. Others have moved to Dayton to dance with DCDC2 after studying at national programs like the University of South Carolina and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre’s certificate program. One DCDC2 dancer has performed with Ballet Theatre of Maryland. For lengthy hours of rehearsal and no remuneration, DCDC2 offers dancers a wide range of venues to show their talents. One is likely to see the company perform at a special event at a local high school or university, a festival or holiday activity. Despite the busy, other lives that its dancers lead, DCDC2 fosters a strong profile for contemporary dance in Dayton and the surrounding area. “The second company plays an integral role in the organization’s presence and maintains a heightened visibility of modern dance in the community,” said Hickman-Matlock. A long list of short gigs come off as brief interludes of dance that interject some diversity into an event where dance is not the main idea, but an evening-length program unfolds a cohesive movement theory – a slate of imaginative works that offer lasting comment on the topic at hand.

A dance concert that promises “The Ways of Humanity” is an opportunity for DCDC2 to take its time and show the work of young choreographers using traditional technique, experimental smatterings and negative space left to be filled with the audience’s interpretation. Two of the eight works are by choreographers – and former DCDC and DCDC2 dancers – Gina Gardner-Walther and Rodney Brown, who are now professors of dance at Wright State University and The Ohio State University, respectively. They have first-hand knowledge of the student/dancer hybrid whose human condition is a range of emotions when faced with the demands of dance; both have danced works by revered choreographers whose contributions to modern dance have outlived them. In addition to dancing works by Merce Cunningham, Talley Beatty and Ulysses Dove at venues around the country and abroad, as professors both are now accustomed to managing a dance laboratory filled with bodies that are willing to take on any experimentation the choreographer sees fit to execute. According to a program description, part of Brown’s work “Serpents and Crows” is set to the music of Polish classical/avant-garde composer Henryk Mikolaj Górecki. It uses “codified dance vocabulary, pantomime gestures and expressionism” in its “translation of personae,” according to the DCDC2 program guide. Gardner-Walther’s dance, “Bittersuite,” references themes of pain, surrender and acceptance and is set to one of the 1950s most popular vocalists, Dinah Washington, singing to the instrumentation of British composer, Max Richter.

The concert is rounded out by the imagination and craft of six additional choreographers, Robert Priore, Demitrius Tabron, Susanne Payne, Marlayna Locklear, Amy Renee Jones and DCDC2 director Shonna Hickman-Matlock who said, “I hope the audience is entertained and enriched. I would like it to witness what makes art connected on a human level.” The works on the program use a range of contemporary movement—pantomime, gestures, running, walking, fluid torsos, shapely arms and hands working rhythms of a code that everyone learns to speak in the moment. It is complemented by a symphony of music genres like neo-classical, rap, rock, R&B, classical, neo-soul and Egyptian dance music. The habitué of concert dance may see humanity differently after the experience.

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company 2 presents “Ways of Humanity” on Sunday, April 28 at 4 p.m. in the University of Dayton’s Boll Theatre in the Kennedy Union, 300 College Park Drive. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at Ticket Center Stage by calling 937.228.3630 or visit ticketcenterstage.com. For more information, visit dcdc.org.

Reach DCP freelance writer Arnecia Patterson at ArneciaPatterson@DaytonCityPaper.com

The rhythm of Burundi

Nick Schwab — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:59:48 +0000

Victoria Theatre hears the sound of Africa

By Nick Schwab

When people think of drummers, they most often think of Neal Peart or John Bonham. But there’s a type of drumming with a different sort of heart and soul, and The Royal Drummers and Dancers of Burundi will show you what it means to pay respect to one’s culture with some rhythm and grace.

The Republic of Burundi is a country that may be unknown to many Daytonians, but that will change when the Royal Drummers and Dancers of Burundi bring their authentic and sacred performance to Dayton in hope of spicing up the flavor of the city. It’s a performance that has been around for many years, and is known in the U.S. for being a part of the 1975 Joni Mitchell album The Hissing of Summer Lawns, and even on the Echo and the Bunneymen song “Zimbo.” The performers have even been at the forefront of creating the genre known as “world music” today, and have continued to put on performances with style, grace and passion. It’s also from a culture and a country that many Americans don’t know that much about. Therefore, a brief history and culture lesson seems to be in order …

Burundi is located in Eastern Africa in the middle of Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A very tiny country of just 10,745 square miles, its size is an area that is slightly bigger than Massachusetts and just under the size of Hawaii.

With a population of just slightly over eight and half million, the country is known for being one of the five poorest in the world, with civil wars and corruption abounding. It’s also said to be the “Switzerland of Africa” due to its year-round green scenery and many rolling hills.

The performances reflect the country’s history as well. According to the director of the company, Gabriel Ntagabo, the Burundian drum began with the very first king of Burundi in the 16th century. These performances were a part of important ceremonies within the kingdom, such as births, funerals and the enthronement of the king.

Ntagabo goes on to say that the drums were also beaten in a unique ceremony called Umuganuro in which the king blessed the plants to produce a bountiful harvest. In that way, the drums had a connection with agriculture, which gave it a sense of fertility symbolism.

“The skin was likened to a baby’s cradle, the pegs to the mother’s breast, the drum’s body to the stomach and the base of the drum to the umbilical cord; all elements of women and fertility,” Ntagabo said.

This origin behind the drums has more meanings as well. The drummers said that they were sacrificed for the drums, in a way that meant they must respect and follow the kingdom’s law and customs despite the costs.

He adds that today the drum is considered to be highly respectable and played for ceremonies in which the president of the Republic and other dignitaries are present. This original performance features all rhythms passed down from father to son.

Ray Gargano, the Education and Engagement Director of the Victoria Theatre, says that this performance is very special. “We don’t usually get this opportunity to present African drumming. This is the ‘real deal’, the drummers from (this country) have their own style and culture.”

So just what does this include? That is just what I asked Ntagabo.

“Every individual is a drummer, dancer and singer. In most (other) performances, the dancers follow the beat of the drums, but in the case of the Burundi drums, the drummers follow the dancer.”

There will be about 12-14 drummers on stage, as well as a chief, and the drummers are known for carrying the drums on their heads while still playing them, thus making it a sight to see in this 1,100 seat theatre.

It might not be so foreign to all though, as Dayton actually has a community of Burundians. Gargano says he found out that the city is actually home to about 200 Burundi refugees, which can certainly be considered a surprising number of people in this community that come from across the world, and in a country with such a small population.

Gargano is excited about presenting the show to Dayton’s Burundian community, as well as to others in the community. “Part of this is inviting the Burundi youth in Dayton to see some of the traditional drumming and festivities of their culture,” he said.

Since it is the type of original performance that will bring the heart and soul of the country to our fabulous city, and will surely be a sight to see, Gargano concludes about the purpose of this event, “Dayton is such a welcoming community to international guests. This is one of the ways we can reach out internationally and make a connection to other people and cultures.”

Ntagabo agrees with this sentiment, “We are delighted to share it with the people of Dayton.”

The Royal Drummers and Dancers of Burundi will be at the Victoria Theatre, 138 N. Main St., on Thursday, Nov. 1. The show begins at 8 p.m. and tickets range from $16-$39 plus service fees. For more information visit www.victoriatheatre.com.

Reach DCP freelance writer Nick Schwab at NickSchwab@daytoncitypaper.com