Lehigh Valley Source

Muhlenberg College Presents Collection of Student-Choreographed Dances

A scene from Muhlenberg College dance
department’s “Moving Stories,” a collection of
student-choreographed pieces.
Photo by Ben Carlson

By DIANA MORSE
Of Lehigh Valley Source

Allentown, PA.--For most students, sports, social maneuvering, and the ubiquitous Solo cup are necessary parts of the American college experience.

Muhlenberg College’s student choreographed dance concert, running through Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009, at the school’s Baker Theatre, celebrates these favorite things collegiate and more.

Carolina Millard’s “Wasted” is a winner. The well-cast dance takes a lighthearted look at college partying. Amidst a field of red Solo cups, a quartet of classmates stagger, smile like loonies, and signal the bartender. As with kindergarten horseplay, it’s all fun until someone puts out an eye. This occurs only at the close of the piece, when one dancer tries to kick another, who is passed out on the floor. When their friend is unresponsive, the remaining three drop their cups, shocked that the dance could have turned out so wrong.

Aubrey Kupstas taps her inner flashdancer to afford exotic sensuality to “This Ain’t No Scrimmage,” an athlete-inspired dance for six scarlet-clad women, featuring wild hair and wilder warm-ups. Fantastic work with Amazonian shadows. Kudos to Kupstas for a creative, enjoyable work.

The two-hour program opens with Dana McGowan’s quirky “Keeping Up With the Joneses,” set to Jordan Louis’ “Caldonia” and Louis Armstrong’s “When You’re Smilin’.” McGowan's 40s-style dresses and formal white gloves give way to just a touch of silliness as her quartet of dancers react to the music with Vogue-ish attitude and abandon.

Ashley Taylor’s “When Falling is a Means of Flying” opens with creepy clockwork motions that morph into a sunburst of passion. As the business of life marches by, a modern romance blossoms, floats, and dies. The principal dancers are also convincing actors, serving up one emotionally charged moment after another.

Ashley Sleeth’s primal “Vulnerability: Still Undefeated” opens slowly as dancers inch themselves from the slime, jerking and flailing until each realizes he or she is not alone. (At least that’s what I took from the performance.) Athletic dancers perform together yet alone, converging almost with incidental contact improv. A denouement of knuckles slapped on the stage in unison left me scratching my head, until the final moment, when the dancers spring to life, ready for more, as the lights fall.

“Show and Tell” by Lynn Lisella does both. Brava! The dance is set to the somewhat silly “We’re Going to be Friends,” and Lisella’s nine dancers reflect the song perfectly. Jerky, schoolgirllike motions each truly embody that first-day-of-school feeling in a frenetic search to connect. Exaggerated formal handshakes turn into raw, new friendships--the kind that you just know will last forever.

Emily Daly’s “Collective Alignment” is a haunting breath of air, with whispering voices like water launching Daly into a lithe and sturdy solo performance.

“Suspiciously Like a Standard” by Rebecca Haverson features six dancers sculpting space on a ladder. What begins as a promising dance quickly turns confusing--a sturm and drang with dissonant string accompaniment. Until my jaded brain said, “Aha!  I get it! The ladder is SOCIAL. It is CORPORATE.” Then everything made sense. The ladder is what you climb in your subconscious. As the dance closes, the ladder is carried away, with one dancer clinging to it longingly, letting herself be dragged across the floor rather than let go.

Live music is the highlight of Michele Sasso’s “Within Absence.” Unfortunately, her choreographed love/hate story lacks substance. Men. Women. Mars. Venus. We get it. I looked for something more, and maybe I missed something, as there were some fun moments, but no revelations.

This was also the case with Laura Mayerson’s “Ritual Disintegration.” I enjoyed the swirling motifs, folding, and Indian/yoga influences. But I am afraid I missed the point--I didn’t get a sense of disconnect of ritual in the often unison dancing.

“(In)convenient Solitude” by Katie Fierro is an uncomfortable, Darth Vader-y, underwater-y drowning, or iron-lung bound experience. In that way, I mean it is good, mostly because it is something new. Fierro’s dancers use their own breath to provide a musical backdrop for much of the piece, enhanced by “Silence” by Jan A.P. Kaczmarek and “Take a Breath” by The Hit Crew.

“Broken Space” by Olivia Alvarez uses blocks of light to nicely illustrate the longing for privacy. As dancers invade each other’s space, there is stress, even aggression. Finally, the boxes dissolve, and the dancers prove that yes, we can all get along. If only real life would be as optimistic. But, that’s why we dance, no? To reveal both the terrifying--and inspiring--sides of human nature.

“Moving Stories” runs at 8 p.m. on Friday, and at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are $15 each for adults and seniors, and $8 for youth. To reserve tickets, call 484-664-3333 from noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets must be purchased at the time of reservation. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.muhlenberg.edu/tickets. For more information about the dance program at Muhlenberg College, visit www.muhlenberg.edu/depts/theatre.

Classical Indian Dance Offers Spectacle at Zoellner Center

Avani Dalal, an Emmaus High School junior, and
Priyanka Parekh, a Parkland High School junior,
perform a classical Indian dance at Zoellner Center
for the Arts, Bethlehem.
Photo by Steve Siegel

By STEVE SIEGEL
Special to Lehigh Valley Source

Bethlehem, Pa.--The performing arts offers few spectacles as spellbinding in motion, color, and beauty than classical Indian dance. Through a tantalizing blend of sheer physicality and grace, against a background of music itself otherworldly and mysterious, dancers tell a story in a language of movements, involving not only arms and legs but facial expressions, fingers, and toes.

On Sunday, Aug. 16, at the Zoellner Center for the Arts, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, two local students from the Nrithyanjali Institute of Dance, headquartered in North Brunswick, N.J., wonderfully performed such a spectacle to the delight of an audience of more than 350. Although the event was free, the families of the dancers requested that donations be made to The Wellness Community of the Greater Lehigh Valley.

The occasion was more than just a performance of Bharatanatya, an ancient form of classical Indian dance that is more than 2,000 years old. It was also an Arangetram, a sort of coming-of-age ceremony for teenage dancers. The word literally means “ascending the stage,” and is the culmination of years of rigorous training under a guru, often becoming the starting point of a dance career.

But the event also serves as a rite of passage into adulthood, much as the bat or bar mitzvah in Jewish culture. Thus, Baker hall, filled with families, friends, and well-wishers for the dancers—many from out-of-town—was charged with that suspenseful atmosphere only a special ceremony can provide.

The Bharatanatya style of dance is practiced mainly in Southern India, where it was initially performed exclusively in temples as an expression of devotion. Avani Dalal, an Emmaus High School junior, and Priyanka Parekh, a Parkland High School junior, performed the three-hour marathon with seemingly limitless energy. Dressed in splendid costumes of colorful silks and satins bedecked with jewels, their hands henna-painted and with bells on their ankles, the pair looked liked goddesses from an Indian storybook.

The performance consisted of 10 sections, each with a specific melody and rhythm, and each having a specific theme of homage to a particular deity. Some sections were solemn and serious, others were laced with humor and mirth; in one, Lord Krishna, eternally in love with Radha, flirts with other women, their bickering disturbing all of nature. All were characterized by forceful footwork, highly stylized gestures, and powerful facial expressions.

The pair was backed by a trio of musicians from India, consisting of a vocalist, a percussionist, and a flutist. The music itself was lovely, rich in percussion, yet with softly flowing vocal and instrumental passages.

The performance was preceded by a reception and followed by an Indian dinner, the delicious food provided by the Spice India restaurant in Whitehall Township.

Steve Siegel is a freelance writer who lives in Fogelsville, Pa.

    

Free-and-(Somewhat)-Easy Tango in the Park

By DIANA MORSE
Of Lehigh Valley Source

Allentown's West Park (1500-1600 block between W. Turner and Linden streets) echoed with strains of the Argentine tango Monday evening, July 6, as more than 60 new and experienced dancers participated in the first of four weekly lessons in the park, led by instructor Sharon Hillman.

"I've been doing this for some time; tango is a fabulous dance," said Barnaby Ruhe, Ph.D., of Emmaus, who joined the dozen or so Lehigh Valley Tango Society volunteers on hand to help new dancers learn the classic dance's sultry moves.

Hillman coaxed dancers onto the fountain's terrace—coated with a fine layer of sand for easier movemet—with a battle cry of "Don't be shy!" With encouraging words of instruction and a brief demonstration, Hillman orchestrated a slow-moving train of couples circling the freshly re-painted fountain.

By the time the 45-minute lesson was over, the speed had increased, and dancers' skills (or at least vocabularies) now included intricate crossings and collects. Following the formal lesson, dancing continued until 9 p.m.

Free introductory tango lessons, sponsored in part by West Park Civic Association, will repeat at 6:15 p.m. Mondays throughout July. In case of rain, lessons will move to Allentown Brew Works, 812 Hamilton St.

For Tango in the Park details and weekly location confirmation, visit www.artsallentown.com or e-mail lv_tango@msn.com.