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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2008 > June > 11
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Dance Dance Revolution—Austin style, part 2
Want more dance? Of course you do.
Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company reveals the latest from the award-winning Hamrick. Known for her athletic, precise and lively modern dance style that’s often inflected with terrific humor, Hamrick takes a bit of a new turn with two new dances presented at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday at Austin Ventures Studio Theatre in Ballet’s Austin new Butler Center, 501 W. Third St. Tickets are $15.
For “Mountains, Ships and Lives” Hamrick started with a trio of images — photos of the once majestic, snow-covered Mount Kilimanjaro compared to the snowless, rocky barren mountain it is becoming; the recent account of a cruise ship that sank because of a hole the size of a fist; and returning soldiers from Iraq. Music from the Microphones’ “Mt. Eerie” sets the tone for this dark new work while an installation by visual artist Renee Nunez allows the dancers to move through, and interact with, delicate paper feathers and streamers.
Read Nunez’s blog to learn about her process and see more photographs.
“Yes!” is based on the James Joyce quote, “Yes I said yes I will yes,” with the dancers saying yes to every temptation. Tim Kerr, an Austin-based composer, musician and independent record producer, has created the original score for “Yes!”
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Dance Dance Revolution—Austin style
In case any of you arts aficionados have been under a rock … this June has emerged unofficially as THE dance month of calendar.
Some of the convergence of dance has been artfully planned. Last weekend, the first Big Range Austin Dance Festival kicked up its heels. Spearheaded by indie dance mover-and-shaker Ellen Bartel, Big Range (which has been going strong in Houston for several years), brings a lineup of national and local indie modern dance makers to Austin for two weeks of showcases.
It’s a brilliant move on Bartel’s part to coordinate such a happening. Austin’s been long overdue for this kind of coordination of the indie dance scene. Check out the Big Range Austin web site for details on the shows, which run through Sunday, including this weekend’s showcase featuring new work by two-time Austin Critics’ Table Award-winner Sharon Marroquin and the ever impressive David Justin of American Repertory Ensemble.
American Repertory Ensemble.
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Review: ‘Love, Janis’ at the Long Center
There’s an irony in watching a Janis Joplin stand-in talk about the Monterey Pop Festival, the hazy launching pad for the Summer of Love, in the Michael and Susan Dell Hall at the Long Center, where you can’t even bring in a glass of pinot grigio.
There’s also plenty of fun to be had.
“Love, Janis” tells the story of the Texas native from the time she makes her way through her first audition with Big Brother and the Holding Company to her death, jumping from letters she sent home, read Tuesday night by Marisa Ryan, to the songs she made famous, sung by Mary Bridget Davies. It doesn’t make for much of a narrative arc — they are, after all, letters and songs, not chapters — but it’s enough.
Ryan offers a take on Janis’ letters that’s more lonely and filled with a need for approval than the singer’s brassy music would let on. Davies, though, belts out some of her own interpretations that, especially in “Summertime” and “Ball and Chain,” offer an alternative to Joplin’s while still celebrating the original.
The two Joplins complement each other, but, as could be expected, the music overpowers the story. Because while Ryan’s reading of the letters can be funny and heartfelt, it feels most like Boomer nostalgia. The music, though more familiar, feels fresh.
(“Love, Janis” continues at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive. $34-$59. 474-5664, thelongcenter.org.)
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