dance preview

Ann Arbor Dance Works presenting works new, old and in between

By Susan Isaacs Nisbett Freelance Entertainment Writer

Posted on Fri, May 27, 2011 : 5:54 a.m.

Dancer Tehillah Frederick, Ann Arbor Dance Works.

Photo by Glenn Bering

At Ann Arbor Dance Works' 26th annual spring concert, what’s new is really new, and what’s old is new again. Thursday through Saturday at the Betty Pease Studio Theater on the University of Michigan campus, this choreographic collective, made up of U-M dance department faculty, celebrates the start of its second quarter-century with a brand new guest artist, video dance, live music and a well-edited selection of dances from the past. The performances feature students from the U-M dance program as well as select faculty.

For the past few years, AADW has drawn its guest artists from the ranks of alumni who have made their mark on the nation’s dance scene. “We’ve showcased them almost exclusively, along with people we know really well” said Jessica Fogel, the faculty member who is artistic director for the show. But this year’s guest, New York choreographer Sidra Bell, director of Sidra Bell Dance, has no U-M connections. “She’s someone none of us know,” Fogel said. “Her name came up when one of our MFA students wanted to shadow her for her thesis on the creative process. I began to become aware of her that way.”

Fogel and her colleagues liked what they heard and saw of Bell, whose commissions have taken her around the country and abroad. “She has a very virtuosic movement vocabulary that I thought our dancers would enjoy, and a collaborative process of creating works that is engaging, contemporary and exciting,” Fogel said.

PREVIEW

Ann Arbor Dance Works

Who: Students and U-M faculty.
What: Works by U-M dance faculty and guest artist Sidra Bell.
Where: Betty Pease Studio Theater, in the Dance Building on the U-M main campus, adjacent to the CCRB, 1310 N. University Court.
When: Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.
How much: $15 general admission; $10 students and seniors. At the door only, beginning one hour before performance time. Seating is limited. 734-763-5461. For more information: AADW website, sitemaker.umich.edu/annarbordanceworks.

AADW members were thrilled that Bell was willing to enter into just such a process with the dancers—the show features a new work she has created for AADW during a two-week residency.

Another show premiere is faculty member Amy Chavasse’s “What Passes for Tenderness.” Chavasse poses the question, “How is tenderness expressed, and what is the object of our tenderness?” She answers it in movement, in a dance for six.

Peter Sparling’s “Patient Spider,” from 2010, is a “screendance,” a video work in which editing and the flat screen provide a web-like kaleidoscope of multiple windows onto the body (Sparling’s). Whitman’s “Noiseless Patient Spider” is the text, with music by composer Yehuda Yannay.

Three older dances—golden oldies from the creators’ pasts—make an appearance on the bill as well.

Bill DeYoung presents “Tenfold,” a solo revived from 1986, now danced by Jillian Hopper. The work, set to music by the U-M’s Stephen Rush (played live by pianist Joseph Prestamo), sets forth 10 different musical styles and qualities that flow into each other before a coming together in a cadenza that recapitules them.

Robin Wilson reprises her charming, light-footed “Feets!”, in which five women strut their stuff to music by the Easy Karaoke Players. Wilson did the video backdrop for the piece as well as the choreography.

She’ll also dance in “Blues/Crossroad,” a 1997 duet that she set to traditional field hollers. This time around, Erika Stowall takes on Wilson’s original role as a woman at the crossroads of her life, and Wilson plays the being from another realm who helps her discover her own path.