Hin und zerück (There and Back)
Review: Danceground Keriac
Benefit performance February 28, 2009
Keriac Studio, San Francisco
Hin Und Zerück is an opera by Hindemith that goes half way through and
then reverses. I was reminded of the opera because many of the artists
in the Danceground Keriac benefit perform in Berlin, where Hindemith’s
opera was given, but also because the evening included work explored in
the past, re-explored for the present and included a retrospective
video on Keriac, the woman whose studio was home to the evening’s
sponsor, Scott Wells. The evening covered a wide range of performance,
singing, contact improvisation, an interview-conversation and general
group dance.
Jess Curtis and Maria Francesca Scaroni, known locally for "Symmetry"
offered the most accomplished work, a side-by-side duet to two songs;
"Ave Maria" sung by Callas and "Blue Velvet," a number by
Bobby Vinton. Although neither left his or her place, each executed
selected gesture/movement that implied a range of emotion from satire
to pain, though each viewer might decide those differently. Dressed in
evening clothes, the couple face front, grimaced and stretched, never
changing their downstage focus. These two comment on performance
itself.
It was good to see Kathleen Hermsedorf again after what seems like a
long absence from the SF scene. In her wonderfully relaxed "fling and
fall" style, she wound up on the floor a lot, noting in her remarks to
the house. "I seem to wind up on the floor." The musician Albert
Mathias played some sort of electronic drumset which set off
Hermsesdorf’s explosive moves. Her long loping moves are great to
watch.
Scott Wells has inherited the 1805 Divisidero studio from Keriac, a
dancer who was there for some twenty years, teaching contact
improvisation and offering solo dances and a special dance philosophy,
that is, "dance is a flame burning in their (dancers) core." The video
collage, by Lindsey Gouthier, showed Keriac in many moods, most notably
in the role of a ‘cancer dancer’, the dancer effected by disease. Scott
and his dancers continued next after the video showing, demonstrating
Wells’ particularly relaxed easy style of ‘contact’ as he conversed
with Steve Bearman about Keriac and his work. Wells’ dancers were Ray
Chung, Aaron Jessup, Vitali Kononov and Jesse Olsen.
Nita Litte, formerly of the once famous Re-union Group and the
Divisidero Research Company, gave us their contact dancing,
characterized by careful watch and response moves. Each dancer had a
particular style of moving and provided some surprises. That group
consists of Lizz Roman, Ilka Szilagyl, Laura Stokes, Malca Folch, Aaron
Jessup, Vitali Kononov, Kedex Olivas, Mathew Shyka and Rosemary Hannon.
For this reviewer, contact improvisation has great limits; although fun
to do with its balances, leans and release, the tendency is always
down into gravity (preceding often by lifts) and thus the dynamic
remains constant. More formal dance has a wider range of tensions.
The evening included a goddess-like belly dance by Vanessa Kettler and
skillful aerial work by Alayna Stroud. Charles Campbell, formerly a Mangrove dancer, was the charming moderator.
