Spring Back Offers Definitions of Movement

Dance, seen in a certain light, is perhaps an inversion of architecture. Whereas architecture seeks to mediate the space of those immersed within it, dance takes a largely static space and transforms it into a dynamic, mutable thing. If there is one theme that dominated this year's Spring Back, it was this exploration of space and its implications.

Through several different filters and viewpoints, this motif formed a line which ran through several of the evening's pieces.

The show opened quietly with Associate Professor of Theater Ann Cooper Albright's solo piece "Waltz: A Tribute to Isadora Duncan." Recreating a part-improvised, part-choreographed dance by Duncan, the work featuresd two young violinists as well as Albright. The two girls stood to the right and left of the dancer, playing a Brahms waltz. Her movements were broad and cyclical, with hands reaching upward and then cradling, as if holding an infant. While gracefully and ably danced, the movements in many ways felt worn-out; they have become so entrenched in modern dance that one has to wonder at their continued effectiveness.

Albright admits as much in her program notes: "These movements feel at once old-fashioned and strangely vulnerable." Yet still she largely fails to transform them into something immediate. Even so, the piece had touching moments and set in motion the show's celebratory atmosphere.

The second work, junior Ann Willemssen's "Interplay," proved an exciting and energetic follow-up. Choreographed largely within the vocabulary of swing, the piece also incorporated elements of modern and ballet, with dancers creating and breaking stylistic and structural symmetries.

Set to a both hauntingly beautiful and edgy Steve Reich composition, junior Jason Corff's "Someone Smashed My Window or Pieces of Eight" was perhaps the most thoughtful and provocative piece of the evening. Four dancers, dressed in white and black, created a world of stark and incomplete gesture, moving rapidly from the organic to the mechanical.

Together their bodies formed a gravity, at times attracting and at times repelling, that gave the work an overall unity. It enacted dialectics of solitude and submission, meaninglessness and communion. As well, the dancers demonstrated great precision in this difficult work.

Senior Abigail Raminsky's "Still Line's Pull" began with six dancers in a line, backs facing the audience. They broke away from this formation as individuals and in groups, employing leaps and high energy kinetics, returning as suddenly to this and other geometric formations. The work systematically created and then broke up these formal spaces to surprising and exciting effect.

Sophomore Mary Moran's "Pursuit" was set to Yo-Yo Ma's tango interpretations, but was more expansive than a strict tango. While incorporating and formalizing steps from the dance, her piece explored various stages and moments of romantic love, creating a sort of slide show that moved between the "serious, flirtatious and fierce connections between people." At one moment three of the couples dance as partners, while in the fourth one body is held at the shoulders by the other, corpse-like. It is surprising fare for a tango, yet ultimately very rewarding.

Professor Elesa Rosasco's "The Exquisite Coat" employed the extended balcony of the Warner space to strong effect. Two dancers, one directly above the other, move in near-identical steps, creating a film-like effect. The piece created the surreal mood of despair unique to late nights, employing objects (picture frames, stepladders) whose emptiness is emphasized, as when the ladders are clothed in longcoats.

As the dancers moved, the architecture of the building subtly broke the vertical symmetry. While the piece created some striking visual effects-particularly with light-the thematic elements eventually became heavy-handed, as in the suspended ending.

In her piece "The Architect and the Tenant," Juliana May employs 12 dancers to create and explore monolithic structures. Ten of the dancers create two towering (two person high and long) right angles, which two further dancers weave in and out of and explore. The structures break apart and recombine, creating transmutations from edifice to inhabitant which are thoughtful in their variety.

Ni'Ja Whiston's "And What?!," the only non-modern work of the evening, employed hip hop to create a spontaneous happening: "a street dance performance...where the mood is nothing but excitement and fun."

This is a difficult prospect given the formal setting; what makes hip hop exciting, after all, is the breaking down of this sort of dichotomy, as in the amorphous nature of graffiti writing.

Nevertheless, her piece largely succeeded to this end, employing rhythmic clapping and stomping to strong effect. There were some problems with music transitions, which should be cleared up in later performances.

The final piece of the evening was Albright's 12-person "From the Body to the Flesh." While envisioned by Albright as a piece that "celebrates the sensuality and power of the female body," the effect of the dancers, arranged in broad grid-like patterns, was to create more abstract patterns of form, movement and color, beautiful in their own right. So thoug, the ending felt programmatic and forced, overall the works made for a thoughtful experience, exploring interplays of space and movement, and ultimately finding moments of surprise and immediacy.

Spring Back will be performed Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Warner Center Main Space. Tickets are $3 OCID, $5 at the door.