Black Grace.

JACOB'S PILLOW DANCE FESTIVAL BECKET, MA AUGUST 12-15, 2004

The U.S. premiere of Black Grace, an all-male dance ensemble from New Zealand, had particular resonance at this summer festival. Here, in the 1930s, Pillow founder Ted Shawn and his company of men lived a communal existence while developing their distinct repertoire. Some 70 years later, the public's fascination with testosterone infused dancing has not diminished.

Black Grace's founder, artistic director, and choreographer, Neil Ieremia, channels the company's energy and passion into nuanced choreographic studies. Usually brief and excerpted from larger dances, these express his experience at the intersections of Samoan and New Zealand cultures and of traditional and contemporary dance. But their brevity accentuated variety rather than depth and development, and a full understanding of a dance's meaning was often lost in the editing.

"Fa'a Ulutao" and "Va'a," brief-sections of Suttee, explore the tattooing that marks male rites of passage. In "Ulutao" the six dancers--Taiaroa Royal, Sam Fuataga, Tamihana Paurini, Sean MacDonald, Daniel Cooper, and Jeremy Poi--established the signatures of Ieremia's vocabulary: strong percussive jumps, dramatic tumbling to the floor, and a voluptuous carving of space with limbs and torsos. In "Va'a" the dancers exaggerated rocking back and forth into hopping from one foot to another with their arms and legs splayed in rigid right angles.

The rhythmic body slapping, stamps, and finger-snapping of Samoan tradition distinguished Minoi, as did the men's black-feathered armbands and elegant sarongs. In each piece Ieremia manipulated traditional shapes and steps, adding unexpected dynamic impulses and arranging the dancers in shifting formations: a triangular cluster, intersecting lines, or circles. But it was not unusual to see a series of balletic arabesque hops or expressionist hands hiding faces.

In Human Language, the one full-length piece, three female guest artists--Abby Crowther, Dolina Wehipeihana, and Desiree Westerlund--matched the men in their expansive physicality. Although it began humorously with the six men blowing up phallic balloons as each woman seductively crossed the space, in the subsequent male-female interaction, all shared a rambunctious give-and-take in extravagant lifts and falls.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

www.blackgrace.co.nz/intro.html