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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2010 > June > 16 > Entry
Review: BAM Fest’s ‘New Dance’
A person’s posture can be very revealing. The dancers of Dallas Black Dance Theatre struck defiant, powerful postures in every moment of their performance Tuesday, part of the Black Arts Movement’s New Dance program at the Carver Center.
DBDT and the other companies on the program, Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn and Austin’s Ballet Afrique Youth Ensemble, displayed many of the best features of dance borne in the African American community. All the evening’s dancers were strong and precise physically and artistically.
DBDT has become a fixture of BAM’s programming, and it’s easy to know why. The company’s repertory includes new stars in modern dance choreography, like Camille A. Brown and Nejla Yatkin, as well as treasures of American dance history.
Brown’s duet “Our Honeymoon is Over,” performed by Nycole Ray and Zach Law Ingram to Aretha Franklin’s deep crooning, offered a refreshing look at familiar choreographic structures. The dancers’ fast, frenzied entrance in perfect unison did not communicate a solidarity between them, as unison movement often does, but instead demonstrated two people in the same space, unable to speak to one another. It was the danced equivalent of a screaming match that has gotten so loud no one can be heard. The duet also rejected the easy end to couple dances: resolution. Brown allows Ray, the woman, to decide she’s had enough, leaving Ingram behind at the fight’s end.
But a man had the final say in Asadata Dafora’s classic 1932 solo “Awassa Astrige/Ostrich.” Christopher McKenzie, Jr., embodied the regal ostrich, carefully replicating the characteristics that connect African and African American dance, particularly in his undulating spine and grounded, mobile pelvis. (Dafora came to New York from his home country of Sierra Leone in 1929.) Historians’ emphasis on movement vocabulary in defining African American dance can overshadow the spirit of the dancing. McKenzie did not just do the steps the right way. He stilled the sold-out audience, commanding our attention and calling forth dancing spirits.
DBDT’s other offerings included an excerpt from Yatkin’s solo “Journey to the One: A Tango,” which is practically duet between Janine Beckles and a long, rippling red skirt; and two dances by company members, Richard A. Freeman, Jr.’s balletic drama “Trial & Error” and an excerpt from Ingram’s “Phoenix.”
Jamel Gaines’ Creative Outlet company was a new, welcome addition to BAM. The company has a strong core of dancers, who can handle Gaines’ mix of African and modern vocabulary, as well as an ample number of virtuosic tricks. Bahiyah Sayyed Gaines stands out. She moves with lovely ease and musicality, clearly making choices about when to punctuate the choreography and when to slide gracefully through a long phrase.
Ballet Afrique’s Youth Ensemble opened the evening, displaying solid training in a variety of styles. There’s reason to hope Austin might one day see one of these young women dancing with the kind of companies that filled the rest of the evening’s program.
The Black Arts Movement Festival continues through Saturday. www.bamfestaustin.org
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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