Bebe Miller.

BEBE MILLER DANCE THEATER WORKSHOP, NEW YORK, NY OCTOBER 12- 15, 2005

In Landing/Place, Bebe Miller reassures us that in the face of tenuous or transient living circumstances, we'll be okay if we're among family and friends. The mix of dance, video, and music made for a captivating and rich 75-minute New York premiere. The convivial members of her company--Kathleen Fisher, Darrell Jones, Angie Hauser, Kathleen Hermesdorf, and David Thomson--meshed so well that we contentedly went along for the ride.

Miller's movement vocabulary slides along a spectrum ranging from release to African-based forms to simply play. The dancers took up tasks--supporting another person's weight or leg, or sharing a secret. When they danced, it was often ferociously primal. Each dancer rocked in angry lunges, arms prattling off various semaphores or lashing out from a spiraling torso. There was nary a moment of stillness as the performers (and video imagery) surged along, moving restlessly from one mode of Miller's choreography to the next.

In a powerful, unsettling scene framed by fiery crimson light, the performers plunged into long-held, deep back arches as an ominous tone sounded; then they righted themselves and casually prepared to repeat this gut-wrenching sequence. It suggested that anyone can be slammed by an unexpected crisis.

Motion capture, animation, and video (by Maya Ciarocchi and Vita Berezina-Blackburn) played a vital thematic and aesthetic role without overpowering the dance. A Pleiades-like cluster of dots hovered protectively (or menacingly) above the dancers; a close-up variation of this motion-capture revealed each dot to be a bird, of which dozens shaped a phantom human. Video underlined the theme of perpetually shifting place: Toy houses milled around like cars; violent winds and waters evoked hurricanes; a desolate street summoned subconscious fears.

Albert Mathias played the score live onstage, strumming a guitar and tapping on an electronic drum pad. The music set the mood, from plangent background to driving funk. He lip-synched Verdi and took an early curtain call, getting up to boogie with the dancers. Michael Mazzola's subtle, shimmering lighting added to the chroinatic shift of each scene. Landing/Place is a vibrant example of a gifted artist drawing on a life's worth of experience and weaving it skillfully with new technology. See www.bebemillercompany.org.