Last night I caught a wonderful performance by Snappy Dance Theater. The group was formed in 1997 and in 2002 their Executive Director launched a very aggressive promotion campaign with the goal of making the group the first arts group in Boston to support all of its performers on a full time basis. I saw them at the Copley Theater in 2002 and was amazed. Crisp, smart, funny, and entertaining were some descriptors that came to mind. Last nights performance was not disappointing. The group seems to make an effort to make dance accessible to a wide audience. They were successful judging by the capacity crowd at the Majestic Theater. It’s wonderful to see such gracious support for local art initiatives. Some of the works were from past years, new though was the new commission “The Temperamental Wobble”, inspired by the works of Edward Gorey.
Many of there pieces are strictly fun and entertaining. “Tango Tangle” was one that I had seem perviously were a man and a women are dancing a very modified tango. The piece starts with them in a close grasp smelling each other’s arm pits with a mutual deep inhale. The stick continues from there. It is wonderful to hear almost unanimous laughter from a crowd at what is billed as contemporary dance. “Out of the Blue” is another fun bit. You can’t see the performers, but they are holding blue and green lights that fly around the stage to some ambient like music. It all ends of course in a smile.
Some of there works are more abstract and serious. “Movement in D’Flat” shows a man caught in a very strange reality (well we’ll call it that for lack of a better term). The work starts with a black box on stage. The man is thrown of one corner and the boxes breaks apart. For the rest of the work The “corners” move around the stage capturing and ejecting other characters that interact with the man. The staging is to the second with lighting right on cue with an ejection. It leaves you wondering if their point is something more that just to ponder confusion.
The main work for the evening was the new commission “The Temperamental Wobble”, as said inspired by the works of Edward Goery. Characters are taken for Gorey’s illustrations and placed on stage. Again was seen the mixture of playful and more serious stresses. You have the widow for instance walking slowly over to what is apparently her husband’s grave, her shadow has a life of its own (i.e. two performers). They approach the grave in a mourning fashion, in synchrony. As they leave another shadow (a man in a black suit) appears from behind the grave and the woman’s shadow parts its living counter part. As the shadows dance the living is left apart to weep, only to hang herself after the shadows part together. The hung woman stays on stage as a circus trio does their antics on stage, bumping into the freshly dead in surprise. The morose tone carried through into other play, at the end of a farce balley a woman is cut in two. Ah, sweet death.
My end poballetint? This group has made their mark and will hopefully be around for a while. Catch a performance if you have the opportunity.
