Cain Park: Verb Ballets

Wings And Aires (1981)
Tarantella (2005)
Dust Bowl Ballads (1941)
The Fiddler (1951, excerpted from The Village I Knew)
To Have and To Hold (1989)
CLICKS Crew (2010)
Ambiguous Drives (2010)
at the Evans Amphitheater, Cain Park, Cleveland Heights

But for Wings and Aires I probably would be beginning with something about how this was a pleasant evening of dance. Unfortunately, Verb began the performance with Wings and Aires: Not only was I not moved by the dance--which bordered on eternal in length--the quality of the music was distractingly abysmal. I think the only place I've heard classical music with less dynamic range and more distortion is in the parking lot of the United Dairy Farmers convenience store across from Cain Park... where, as near as I can tell, the sole purpose is to make things unpleasant for loiterers. (It's little wonder, in that case, why classical has a bad rap among people in my general age range).

I was contemplating cutting my losses during the pause leading into Tarnatella, and I'm glad I stayed, as that piece was an interesting combination of movement and music, including some fancy footwork/cymbal playing while dancing.

Dust Bowl Ballads and The Fiddler were both acceptable, with Dust Bowl Ballads being only piece in the program where the music (By Woodie Guthrie) had lyrics that joined the story of the dance and the dance and music were an effective combination.

Rounding out the program, it is difficult to choose between To Have and Hold and Ambiguous Drives as my favorite from the evening. Both had great music, compelling movement, and at the most basic level held my interest throughout. I think To Have And To Hold wins by a narrow hair due to the unconventional but enjoyable choreography including flowing over, under, and through three benches and the other dancers. It wasn't until near the end of the dance that I wondered if the undecorated pine benches were intend to double as a symbolic coffin.

Finally, in between those two dances was CLICKS Crew featuring Verb Ballets' summer interns and students: At first it seemed a little sloppy but came together as the dance progressed and was likewise enjoyable to watch and listen to.

Lincoln

GroundWorks DanceTheater @ Cain Park (Alma Theater)

The Program: Valence, Unpublished Dialogues, Saying Yes
The Dancers: Amy Miller, Felise Bagley, Sarah Berrett, Damien Highfield, Tod VanSlambrouck

One of the many* wonderful things about living in Cleveland Heights is the community's support for the arts, possibly the most visible expression of that being Cain Park -- a 2 minute walk literally down the street from my house.

At some point late yesterday it came to my attention that GroundWorks DanceTheater was performing at Cain Park this weekend, and having been impressed by the results of the collaboration between GroundWorks, The Cleveland Play House, and The Cleveland Orchestra for A Soldier's Tale during this year's Fusion Fest I figured it seemed like a good way to spend a Saturday Evening.

So to get the less than great out of the way first: I'm not sure if it was the venue's acoustics or the sound system or simply the source material but the music struck me as over compressed or almost completely devoid of dynamic range, and didn't really contribute to the performance.

Being essentially an outdoor theater with a roof, the 90-degree outside heat translated to a sweltering audience... The dancers didn't seem to be inhibited by the heat and presented a show that only got better as the evening progressed.

Opening the evening was Valance: A piece that struck me as having a very post-industrial and dark feel, and perhaps in part due to my not reading the program notes until the conclusion of the piece didn't particularly move me, though I was intrigued by the beginning, starting with the dancers in an accelerating circle until individuals were flung by the momentum.

Following a brief pause was Unpublished Dialogues, relating to the life and death of Virginia Woolf. I was particularly intrigued by what seemed best described as a danced play, making more extensive use of props, setting, and even a relatively clear story arc than any dance I can recall seeing (aside from the aforementioned collaboration) with some whimsical moments bridging the somber conclusion (she did, after all, commit suicide) with the dance rendering spoken dialogue or narration unnecessary.

The lone piece following intermission and a world premiere, Saying Yes, was a just plain enjoyable dance with perpetual movement, pleasant music, and as far as I can tell, there being no program notes accompanying this piece, no unifying underlying story to interpret. I'm not entirely clear if the dance was intended to evoke symbolism embodied by the titles of the music: Exposed Zipper, Trans Fatty Acid's Rain, Evil Yellow Penguin, Mara's Lullaby, Evil Yellow Penguin, Mechanically Separated Chicken Parts, and Pickled Trousers; Since I wasn't watching or listening with that in mind I can't comment on that aspect.

GroundWorks has one more performance at Cain Park, 2:00 Sunday, and later this year joins with Opera Cleveland in a collaboration for Bizet's The Pearl Fishers

Lincoln
*- Others include the huge variety of local businesses, the immense walkability--including walkability to University Circle, and the diversity of just about everything: People, architecture, ...