[NEohioPAL] Berko review: OHIO DANCE THEATRE @ Breen

[Roy Berko]

*Ohio Dance Theatre brings love to The Breen Center; preview of future
dance concerts*



Roy Berko

(Member, Dance Critics Association)



When the Cleveland San Jose Ballet left town, it left a void.  There
appeared to be no regularly performing company that presented ballet.  Yes,
touring companies came in.  Raymond Rodriguez and Karen Gabay’s Point of
Departure popped up on occasion and gave hope for a return of a company
that would showcase ballet.



What was overlooked was Artistic Director Denise Gula and her Ohio Dance
Theatre, housed in Oberlin.  Regularly appearing at Lorain County Community
College, where Gula was the school’s first dance instructor, and making
some west side of Cuyahoga county performances, the company brings a unique
presence to local stages when it performs.  Many of its numbers are ballet.
Yes, pointe shoes, classic lifts and story telling ballet.



In their latest appearance in the Cleveland area, appearing at the Breen
Center, the company performed to a nearly full-house on a snowy February 10
evening.  The balanced program touched on various types of love….love of
country, dreamy love, passionate love, obsessive love.



A new work, THE DREAM, choreographed by Lisa Lock, found the red, black and
white costumed dancers moving to *Ekectrocutango* and *Elecrotango*.  Staged
with contemporary ballet movements, a dreamer and her dream characters
created a fine parallel to the Latin moods and rhythms.



CARMEN, danced to the sensual music of Georges Bizet, was a fast paced,
melodramatic vision created by Gula.   It featured rapid moves, nice lifts
and carries, and a variance from the usual CARMEN done with capes and
bullfighting.  The costuming worked well, except one can only wonder why
Morgan Stinnet (Jose) was dressed in black chino pants, which was out of
character and seemed to cut off his free flowing movements throughout the
evening.



An excerpt from DRACULA, with music by John Pryce-Jones/Alfred Schnittke,

found the dancers performing in a gated-cemetery complete with gravestones
and mysterious lighting.  It was somber, dramatic and well fit the
foreboding music.   Kyle Primous was a visually imposing Dracula and
Juliana Freude was a tempting tidbit for the bloodthirsty being.



BEYOND COURAGE was a tribute to World War II veterans, some of whom gave
their lives while others suffered emotional scars, for love of country.  Set
to video footage from composer Stephen Melillo’s THAT WE MIGHT LIVE, THEN,
NOW.  FOREVER., a documentary in music, the performance piece showed the
battles of Bataan and Corregidor.  The battle which lasted 3 years, 8
months and 25 days, resulted in 31,095 people losing their lives.  Visual
images and vocal transcriptions were seen and heard as the dancers moved.



A little overly long, BEYOND COURAGE was filled with melodrama and flag
waving.  The first part was powerful, but after an oral letter quoting
segment, the effect wore off as more and more emphasis was placed on
visuals and less on dancing.



The program was nicely balanced by two impressive interludes of music
performed by the Credo String Quintet, a product of the Oberlin
Conservatory’s Chamber Music Program.



*Capsule judgement:*   Ohio Dance Theatre’s DRACULA AND OTHER LOVE STORIES
was a nice balanced program of music, ballet and contemporary dance.



*Upcoming Dance Performances*



BE MOVED

March 24---7:30 pm

Chagrin Falls Performing arts Center

400 E. Washington Street

Program:  HINDSIGHT—homage to rock legend Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders
by Lynne Taylor-Corbett & NEW WORK by guest choreographer Ronen Koresh

Tickets:  440-247-9700 or visit www.chagrinarts.org



Verb Ballets

Breen Center

Friday, February 17, 8 pm

Program:  THE LILY by Chung-Fu Chang, THE SHAKERS by Doris Humphrey, and a
tango by Troy McCarty, OTRA LUNA.

Tickets:  verbballets.org or 216-397-3757



 NIGHT AT THE RACES

A fund-raiser for Dancing Wheels

February 18, 2012

Doors Open at 6:30p.m.; First Race at 7:15p.m.

The Dancing Wheels Studios

3615 Euclid Avenue, 2nd Floor

Cleveland, Ohio 44115

 $15/person; Table of 10/$125

*(includes pizza and non-alcoholic drinks; B.Y.O.B. and snacks)*


 Roy Berko's commentaries and reviews appear on coolcleveland.com,
neohiopal.com,artsamerica.com,

broadwaynews.com, and The Times Newspapers.  His blog is: www.royberko.info


**
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.neohiopal.org/pipermail/neohiopal-neohiopal.org/attachments/20120211/d2e4b054/attachment-0003.htm>