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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2011 > December > 02 > Entry
Review: KDH Dance’s “Flash Dance”
Don’t forget to pick up a pair of 3-D viewing glasses before you take your seat at Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company’s “Flash Dance: 30 More Dances in 60 Minutes,” now at Salvage Vanguard. You’ll need them for a few minutes of dizzying visual effects.
The 3D segment is just one of several directions Hamrick sends this rapidly paced modern dance program. Indeed, Hamrick seemingly throws in everything and the kitchen sink for a spirited if somewhat artistically incohesive performance.
With the current production Hamrick revives the format of her previous “Flash Dance” program from a few years ago in which her troupe flew through 30 dances in 60 minutes, staying on time thanks to a kitchen timer. Now, the audience is invited to set their cell phone timer functions to exactly 60 minutes to tick away the time.
Thursday’s premiere, the first of four shows, was sold-out with a considerable waiting list.
With dances counted down by a sometimes seemingly arbitrary flip of video-projected numbers, the troupe of nine dancers whipped through a cornucopia images and styles, from vigorous athletics to sweet narrative scenes to quirky Pilobolus-like antics with cardboard boxes and other props.
Erica Santiago is a compelling performer. Ditto with Andrea Comola Williams and Miko Doi-Smith. Indeed, Hamrick’s company as a whole again proved one the most technically polished on Austin’s modern dance scene.
Stephen Pruitt’s lighting and production design amped up the frenzy of the program with considerable verve.
If more a sampler of styles than a cohesive program, and if a little too reliant on its own conceit, “Flash Dance” nevertheless proved entertaining.
“Flash Dance: 30 More Dances in 60 Minutes” continues through Dec. 3 at Salvage Vanguard Theater. www.kdhdance.com
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