Portable Dance Troupe presents ‘Strange World’

By Pamela Dyer-Smithz
Theatre Arts

This year's concert reflects in varying treatments an interest in dance/theatre, works that are not easily categorized solely as dance works.  In his book “The Secret Anthology of the Performer,” Eugenia Barba writes,"The tendency to make a difference between dance and theatre, characteristic of our culture, reveals a profound wound. a void with no tradition, which continuously risks drawing the actor towards a denial of the body and the dancer towards virtuosity."

Performance dates are April 8-9 and 12-16 at 8 p.m. and April 10 at 2 p.m.  All performances are in the Arena Theatre in the Speech Arts Building.

 
 “Forest Dreams” by Tandy Beal is perhaps the most traditional Modern Dance work on the program, however within its presentation is a theory about the body as transformative agent. Beal trained and danced with Alwin Nikolais, who looked at his dancers as elemental abstractions.  He had been influenced by the theories of German expressionist dancer Rudolf Von Laban, who employed the use of metaphor to organized the body.  In “Forest Dreams” the dancers could be at times the stillness of trees or the flash of a bird's wing or the leaves caught up in a flurry of wind.

The second work on the program entitled “Home” by Ruth Griffin began within an image of the homeless in New York.  Leaving the subway after an evening's rehearsal she would emerge onto the street where the homeless who had established their territory on that block had ingeniously placed boxes in front of the hot air vents of the Museum of Modern Art. Their heads appeared over the sides of the boxes.

The exploration of the work Home has expanded to include additional questions of territory as seen through the lens of childhood. The vocabulary of the work draws from clown and mask traditions.  The boxes have come to be nests, clown trunks and army tanks. The late engineer and scientist, Buckminster Fuller when asked by a woman how he could tolerate so much travel remarked, "Madam you have no idea where you are."  In 1927 he resolved always and only to work for the humanity of all nations establishing the Institute for the Inventory of Human Resources.

”Colloquium” by Bill Evans enjoyed its first premiere by the Portable Dance Troupe in 2000.  The dance invites the viewer to a meeting an endless tedious exchange.  It locates us within the obsessional spiral of futile argument that seems more invested in the establishment of pecking order than communication.  In its middle section the façade is torn aside and the aggressive, instinctual underbelly within the participants emerges.   Movement style is an ingenious blend of pedestrian gestures in a complex rhythmical ensemble.
 
”Colony” by Ruth Griffin first premiered also in 2000 was inspired by a group of inmates who were her students in the Arts and Corrections Program at Valley State Prison for Women. Now all Arts and Corrections Programs have been cut from the prisons in California. Visual guide for this work began from photographs and documentation of Jerzy Grotowski's “Akropolis.”  First performed in 1965 in Poland, the play was set in an extermination camp. The set of the dance was inspired by the constructivist sculptures of Bauhaus artist and educator, Moholy-Nagy. The movement style of the first two sections of the work was influenced by grotesque theatre traditions. Meyerhold's “Biomechanics” from 1920's Russia and Butoh from post World War II Japan.  The third section embodies ideas of Space Harmonics developed by Rudolf von Laban who had fled a war torn Germany in the 1940's to reside in England.  Working within the Chowchilla prison it became apparent that healing was available to the inmates through the communities they formed.  Their humanity could be rescued within the bonds of friendship.

”These Hands” choreographed by Gina Gibney evolved through a process of collaboration with the dancers. She began her process with them with discussions and writing assignments on the nature of violence within their lives. The movements and text of the piece was derived through improvisatory exercises. The resulting work is an assemblage that unravels through this reflection on levels of violence and images of reparation.

Kenneth Balint's “This Is Not the Tony Bennett Concert” is a melodramatic rendering which deals with the innate self and the self as a member of society within the framework of exploitation and comfort.

Tickets are $7 for Fresno State students; $12 for Fresno State faculty/staff, seniors, members of the Alumni Association, and students at other schools; and $14 general admission.  For more information, call the Theatre Box Office at 278-2216. Buy on line at http:www.csufresno/edu/Theatre.

”Forest Dreams”
Choreographer:  Tandy Beal
Music:  Disc, Art Tatum
Lighting Design:  Jennifer Sullivan
Costume & Make up  Design:  Jacque Babb
Dancers: Kelly Newsome, Danielle Smith, Taylor Theis, and Khirrah Wint

“Home”
1.  Inside the Nest
2.  Musical Chairs
3.  Nations at War
4.  Outside the Box
Choreographer:  Ruth Griffin
Music: Arvo Part, Glenn Miller, Karlheinz Stockhausen,
Guido Arbonelli, Anthony Coleman, GuyKlucevsex
Set Design:  Jeff Hunter
Lighting Design Jeffrey Whitsett
Costume & Make Up Design:  Caroline Mercier
Cast:  Kenneth Balint,  Ruth Griffin,  Janine Miskulin

”Colloquium”
Choreographer:  Bill Evans
Music:  Australian Aborigione by Inlakesh
Lighting Design:  Norberta Ramirez
Costume Design:  Kazuyo Sekiguchi
Cast:  Debra Adamides, Heather Barrie/Kelley Lansing, Nayhr Bracamantes, Diane Engeln, Amanda Hudson, Paige Parker, Matthew Ragan, Marcine Schreckengost

”Colony”
1. Work
2.  Torn
3.  With
Choreographer: Ruth Griffin
Music: Sven-David Sandstrom, Iancu Dumitrescu, Gyorgy Ligeti
Set Design;  Jeff Hunter
Lighting Design:  Petar Milevoj
Costume Design:  Stephanie Bradshaw
Make up Design:  Jody Cox
Cast:  Frank Beverly, Tara Boyd, Kelly Newsome, Courtney Perry, Lashonda Roquemore, Taylor Theis

Poster art by Carolyn Mercier

”These Hands”
Choreographer:  Gina Gibney
Music: 
Costume Design:  Caroline Mercier
Lighting Design:  Miles Carrignan
Dancers; Tara Boyd, Kelley Lansing, Marcine Schreckengost,  Taylor Theis

”This Is Not the Tony Bennett Show”
Choreographer: Kenneth Balint
Music: The Bad Plus, Greg O, and a mystery telephone caller
Lighting Design:  Jeffrey Whitsett
Costume Design: Kazuyo Sekiguchi
Make up Design:  Alex Lawrence
Dancers: Heather Barrie, Nahyr Bracamontes. Jose Luis Mendoza, Kelly Newsome, Matthew Ragan, Lily Robillard, Danielle Smith, Jennifer Story, and Khirrah Wint.