From Languid Lovers to Hip-Hop Head Spinners

From The New York Times, October 2, 2006, by writer Jennifer Dunning.

Fatigue set in by the end of the overly generous second program in the Fall for Dance festival on Saturday night at City Center. But not before the evening's jewel, an excerpt from James Kudelka's "Fifteen Heterosexual Duets," set to Beethoven's "Kreutzer" Sonata.

Credit should go to Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie of Montreal, whose dancers moved easily and wittily, looking like grown-ups who had lived full lives. Mr. Kudelka's choreography is just as witty, full of ingenious partnering and glancing, perceptive takes on lovers' foibles and the art of the duet.

The first duet was for relatively languid, experienced lovers with long body lines (Laurence Lemieux and Victor Quijada), followed by a duet (Andrea Boardman and Sylvain Lafortune) that began with giddy knockabout partnering but soon turned tender. The lovers of the third duet (Sasha Ivanochko and Marc Boivin) could have been middle-aged, in complex partnering full of unexpected dramatic details.

Love can be trusting, as the romantic fourth duet (Anik Bissonnette and Michael Sean Marye) suggested with its odd yet ardent falls and lifts. And the lovers of the fifth duet (Anne Plamondon and Andrew Giday) were helter-skelter squirrels until a poignant closing image.

It might have been better to begin the evening with just the fluttering, spiraling opening solo of Stephen Petronio's "Lareigne," a pure taste of the densely patterned group dance that was to come. Together the two of them made a top-heavy start for the crammed program. Program notes described Nathan Trice's "Prophet & Betrayer" as an exploration of guidance between a young and an old spirit. The dancers could have been father and son or lovers. The duet's great strength was its juxtaposition of a compact, rooted body (Mr. Trice) and a slender, lyrically reaching one (Michael J. Walters).

One of the festival's pleasures is the way its wide-ranging programming can offer new insights into familiar dances. Franck II Louise and his French hip-hop company performed an excerpt from "Drop It!" that was initially funny in the effect of its science- fiction costuming on street-dance moves. But it was a long one-joke piece whose narrative was unclear, though the ornamented head spin that ended the piece was dazzling.

Then came Paul Taylor's "Syzygy," which closed the program. It will be performed again by the Paul Taylor Dance Company at City Center in March. In this context the skimming disjointed movement and lickety-split footwork looked like a modern-dance take on hip-hop.