THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 19, 1995 TAG: 9503190066
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Dance Review
SOURCE: BY SUE SMALLWOOD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
The inventiveness, physicality and accessibility of Daniel Ezralow's dance work has translated easily into the mainstream in music video, film, commercials, even fashion. Saturday evening Ezralow and six fellow choreographer-dancers presented an outstanding program of theatrical contemporary movement that likewise transcended the boundaries of art and entertainment.
Finnish dancer Tero Saarinen opened with ``B12.'' Clad in a gossamer tutu, his movements were starkly beautiful. As visceral tribal beats gave way to pulsing synthesized music, Saarinen's primitive, often childlike postures from a crouch evolved into a rhythmic frenzy of mechanized motions.
Ann Carlson danced ``Visit Woman Move Story Cat Cat Cat,'' based on a true story of a gorilla's love for a cat. The piece, from her acclaimed series ``Animals,'' incorporated a live kitten. Though Carlson performed without clothes, her nudity was not distracting, enhancing her characterization of the primate as a truly natural being with truly ``human'' emotions.
Other innovative works included Oguri's ``One's Solo Blue,'' a tension-filled study of contrasts in light, sound and motion; Ezralow's ``Hoover Hallucinations,'' a bit of humorous tumbling; and ``Tour Of Holland,'' which had the troupe on bicycles with a film of whizzing roadways projected over them. As the film's perspectives and landscapes changed, so did the group's direction, mood and gestures.
The evening's highlight was a trio of sublime works using trapeze and various aerial harnesses. ``Fall From Grace'' featured Lisa Giobbi, who has worked extensively in the circus arts, and Timothy Harling, on a trapeze, their bodies entwining lugubriously and suspending surrealistically in an extraordinary display of strength and control.
Giobbi's ``Falling Angel'' found her floating with no visible support. The ethereal theme was continued in evocative showcloser ``Duet From Night Thoughts,'' with Morleigh Steinberg, in an aerial harness, as an angel, partnered by the Earth-bound Ezralow. MEMO: DANCE REVIEW
Daniel Ezralow & ...
Saturday at Harrison Opera House, Norfolk by CNB