Dance Sampler

Ih1IN 0 Dana Reitz 60 I NIt Ji11 Theater is back in favor in downtown dance after years of real-time task activity, pure movement studies, and rigorous geometric, structures. Last season's performances were loaded with costume, music, narrative, persona-even psychology (that dread tar baby nemesis of "progressive" art). This shift is not a coherent movementwith -manifesto, but simply a response to a cultural zeitgeist which says that strippeddown kinesis and conceptual frameworks just aren't enough anymore. Of course the general formula isn't surefire-dancetheater is a tricky mix to pull off-but there's a juicy pop when it hits home. What follows is a quick tour around town of some dance performances which try to blend downtown integrity with theatrical trap pings. First, some oldies-but-goodies. Three former members of the prescient, defunct, wonderful Grand Union improvisational troupe showed off their current choreography in individual concerts. Barbara Dilley offered what she calls "contemplative dance practices" at the Performing Garage, a series of impressionistic improvisatory exercises to spoken American Indian poetry. The dynamic of her "open structures" was simplistic; for example, at the mention of a bear's footprints , a dancer adopted a bear walk. And her set, patterned quartet, Navajo Homage, had neither the stringent geometry nor the ritualistic veneer such dances need to go anywhere. Dilley herself remains an eyecatching performer with her unstressed kinetic flow and calisthenic-like movement, but the other performances lacked punch. Nancy Lewis presented a low-key series of informal concerts at Studio 505 which featured typically whimsical choreography for Lewis' daffy ingenue persona.Small Talk: "this work has no musical score except for the snapping of fingers, feet, OaUI nuunI rvweUImIiuIW rnuImum t Linda Cohen, and Susan Van Pelt). breathing, whistling, or sound around or out of the room. Improvised it is." Lewis is a large, unevenly weighted performer who turned these unlikely qualities to her advantage ; she translated slightly awkward turns, jumps, and skips into moments of unpredictable charm. She's fond of "off" costumes as well (a purple harem-like outfit for Jonquil)and of dancing against the beat of Richard Peck's jazzy musical accompaniment . Her wispy choreography is real performance work-it didn't exist apart from her moment-to-moment doing of it. Douglas Dunn's Walking Back at the 14th Street Y began with an old act: a woman suspended by her ankles with a rope harness. Then it turned into a neoCunninghamesque assemblage of parts of previous dances. There were "event" touches in the piece's structure (bits of previous dances like Rille, Coquina, and Lazy Madge arranged according to some chancey plan, and sections of group movement intercut with Dunn solos) and in its complex unisex, sketchy/brushy movement style. Dunn even scoots out with a chair and fools with it upstage of the oblivious company. Sound by John Driscoll accompanied the dance in a Cage-like mode, occupying a parallel but separate space and time; it didn't relate to the dancing nor the dancing to it. The movement was Dunndifficuk , and the company's technically proficient dancers showed off its uniquely awkward, elongated intricacies but they just did the steps rather than perform the activity into life. Only Dunn's duet with 61 Susan Blankensop (the only time he danced directly with anyone) stirred up some intense color; everything else-despite Hawaiin shirt costumes-was a cool, neutral pastel tone with few quirky, fauvish highlights. At the Performing Garage, Dana Reitz improvised alone in silence in its open, informal space. In Steps (IM), she worked in a distinctively Reitzian style of upright torso, stepping back and forth, hand and arm gestures, and subtle rhythmic shifts in weight. Her flow of new variations was so unbroken, even, and fluid that the drama of moment-to-moment decision-making was almost lost. It's a cool calligraphic choreography in which many hours of preparation lie behind each "spontaneous" step. The dance was a quiet drama of meditation in action, veiled by her interior gaze. By contrast Sara Rudner's Dancing For an Houror So by her Performance Ensemble at White Dog Studio was a loud raucous pillow-fight...