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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2010 > January > 11 > Entry
Review: Voice Dance Company
Austin welcomed a new dance company Friday.
Voice Dance Company, directed by former Ballet Austin dancer Gina Patterson, offered its inaugural concert at the Zach Theatre. The evening seemed to be a taste of things to come.
The show featured two pieces by Patterson, a premiere of “Your Provision” and the latter half of “My Witness,” a piece Patterson created for DanceWorks Chicago last spring.
Patterson has developed quite a choreographic voice, first with Ballet Austin and more recently through a growing list of commissions from around the country.
“My Witness” had tastes of Patterson’s ability to spin choreographic layers, and it was buoyed by a rousing, sometimes soulful live accompaniment by Chicago band Sons of the Never Wrong. Individuals standing still amongst a larger group of wild, brash movement dropped notes of sorrow into a world grasping for joy. Promising partnerships between dancers, particularly Rebecca Niziol and Eric Midgley, demonstrated what it means to support another person. They didn’t have to stare longingly at one another. They had to feel one another.
“Your Provision” lacked the sophistication that has brought Patterson’s work previous attention. The piece seemed possibly an eagle’s eye view into a dance studio, where dancers pass through rehearsing and developing relationships with one another, but little else tied the piece’s ten vignettes together.
Some pieces popped more than others, namely “Balkan Chicks,” a striking trio for Niziol, Masa Kolar and Chris Hannon. Patterson managed the almost unthinkable: she made a chair dance — the cliche of all dance cliches — that was entertaining, even funny. Niziol and Kolar sat side-by-side, almost miming running in place while seated, setting up a funny, romping tone. Among the cast of eight dancers, many of whom came to Austin at Patterson’s invitation, Kolar’s sense of timing and internal focus made her stand out.
But still both pieces sometimes suffered from a sense of monotony. Tempos changed and sometimes individuals’ intentions shifted, but the dancers seemed to cut through the same air in the same way again and again. Beauty is nice; tension is more interesting. And it will be interesting to see where Austin’s latest new company goes next.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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