Danceworks collaborates on choreographed angst

There are a lot of reasons to be a Danceworks fan, and good dancing is only one of them. The group has the true esprit de corps, collaboration, and hard work that makes teamwork more than a showbiz cliché. And Danceworks provides a showcase for its members' many talents: those who dance are also those who choreograph, design costumes, design lights, direct, and stage manage. They're also the same people cheering their compatriots from the wings.

It's disheartening, then, that the group's fall show fails to capitalize on all this enthusiasm. Most of the pieces fall strangely flat, lacking Danceworks' signature punch of energy. Instead, they are weighted down with big ideas that don't always make the crucial leap from mind to movement.

Perhaps in a deliberate test of their ensemble philosophy (the group is non-audition), most of the dances seem like a quick social psych lesson, and the conclusions they reach reinforce the worst about human nature. In pieces from the appropriately titled "Mercy" to "Fast Love" to even the innocuous "'80s Slumber Party," a dancer is more likely to push away an offered hand than to grasp it in cooperation. Shoving, writhing, twisting, these dancers project more than enough angst to get us thinking about selection and cooperation in any group onstage.

"We Dream the Magic, We Suffer the Reality," is choreographer Autumn Leonard's, JE '00, vision of this support and competition in a pas de deux for two women. Just as one struggles up from the floor, the other succumbs or pushes her down or leans on the strength of her partner. Leonard has plenty of good ideas, but she relies on repetition to badger her audience into understanding. Cutting for a few iconic movements would have made the point stick that much more effectively.

"Star Fucker" at first seems ready to avoid these pitfalls. Choreographed by Mimi Yin, PC '99, it sets a corps of menacing women spinning, diving, and running in different sets of complex stage relationships. But then Yin inserts a balletic interlude of two airily costumed dancers, which undercuts her ensemble's cohesion and attack. The piece would be stronger and subtler without this reminder of everything it wants to overcome.

"Annabel Lee," on the other hand, doesn't condescend. Performed to a taped reading of Edgar Allen Poe's famous poem, "Lee" finds inspiration in words for a set of beautiful images and movement series, well-rehearsed and smoothly danced by a set of six dancers. It intrigues rather than preaches. Though directed by Lesley Lundeen, TC '97, the piece was choreographed by the dancers, which is as good an endorsement as any for what Danceworks is all about.

Not all the dancing in this show is dark and unsettling. "Heartbreaker," choreographed by Laura Kadetsky, MC '99, is a light, jazzy romp to Erasure. It adds a touch of humor to the program, even winking at the exercise-video quality of its choreography with some jogging and jumping jacks near the end. And "Granada," choreographed by Trisha Miller, TD '97, is the show's only classical ballet offering. This piece is hurt, though, by shaky execution; only Jennifer Fisher, JE '00, shows strong technique throughout.

Danceworks is much more at home in the modern dance of "Mercy" or the jazz of "'80s Slumber Party." In "Granada," Miller overcompensates by throwing in several different ideas and styles--including a half-hearted flamenco section--that end up just muddled.

Traditionally, Danceworks ends its shows with a large, exuberant showcase. Here it's "Fast Love," choreographed by Vanessa Fitt, DC '99, Natasha Lightfoot, ES '99, and Kendra Oat-Judge, TD '97. Again, though, the dancers are more concerned with competing for the attention of a single man than with dancing together. Like most of the dances of the show, "Fast Love" impressed me with its willingness to tackle big ideas. But I am left wishing that these pieces didn't forget the fun and beauty of dance in process.