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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > June > 01 > Entry
Review: ‘If There Is A Heaven’
Toni Bravo and Diana Huckaby the creators of “If there is a Heaven …, Though shalt not pollute!” chose well when they picked the Umlauf Sculpture Garden for their performance last weekend. The garden’s mix of art and nature invites dance. Swirling pathways and small and large artworks create a kinetic overlay of lines and shapes.
While the garden offered a lovely performance site, the work lacked thematic linkages, even though it circled back several times to environmental themes. In individual moments, the political message was clear: honor the earth. But how the dances—twelve in all, most choreographed by Bravo—added up to homage to the Earth was unclear.
The audience walked through the garden led a large coffin hoisted high by four men, a clanging cowbell, and somber drums. The pieces had a variety of tones. Some were comedic: “The Jesters” had a vaudevillian acrobatic flair all the way down to the dancers’ striped socks, and “The Explorers” had a jungle theme, complete with stuffed monkeys hanging from the trees. (Why add a silly prop to an already lush landscape?)
Some of the more successful individual works were more somber. “Mother Earth’s Angel,” danced by Chika Aluka, drew strength from its central sculpture, a huge, single bird’s wing. In the first half of “The Warriors,” choreographed by Anu Naimpally, dancer Annelize Machado demonstrated how bodies and sculpture make beautiful shapes, not just by hitting positions, but by sending energy out along extended lines.
But moments of depth never became more than moments. And important social messages never became more than didacticism.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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