Cultural Connection Shaky in `Forest'. (Reviews: National).

Cultural Connection Shaky in `Forest' Alonzo King's LINES Ballet/Nzamba Lela New Jersey Performing Arts Center Newark, New Jersey October 14, 2001

Despite the best of intentions, The People of the Forest, a creation featuring Alonzo King's LINES Ballet of San Francisco and Nzamba Lela of the Central African Republic, never quite comes together in a cohesive fashion. Rather than a true collaboration, the project too often gives the impression of the Africans, an internationally renowned group of musicians and dancers, serving as visual and aural window dressing for LINES's dynamic stylizations on classical ballet.

It's an unfortunate result, given King's noble ambitions. In interviews before a six-city national tour of The People of the Forest last fall, King said he was inspired not only by the beauty of Nzamba Lela's music but by the simplicity of the group's approach to life and art. The choreographer is a long-time fan of the polyphonic vocalizing of the Aka clan of the Mbuti (commonly known as Pygmy) to which Nzamba Lela belongs.

The project was hampered, no doubt, by a shorter-than-expected rehearsal period at the White Oak Plantation near Jacksonville, Florida. Studio time to put the project together, originally two weeks, was unexpectedly cut in half in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Tightened restrictions on air travel and international visitors entering the U.S. after the attack delayed the sixteen-member African ensemble from making a scheduled rendezvous with the LINES dancers. A language barrier necessitating the use of several interpreters between King and Nzamba Lela's choreographer, Barthelemy Etoumba, and arranger, Theophile Koumangou, further slowed the collaborative process.

The result was more like a series of vignettes strung together by the music. The African group celebrates the layering of sound, with a dash of movement added to the mix, and King obviously tried for a layering of elements--sound, movement, costumes, lighting, and even video imagery of the dancers in one section.

King's dancers dominated the stage for much of The People of the Forest, clad in a series of visually stunning costumes (credited to Robert Rosenwasser, Colleen Quen, and Ann Beck)--shimmery, bell-shaped dresses, flesh-toned outfits, and short grass skirts similar to those worn throughout by Nzamba Lela. For most of the evening, Nzamba Lela remained seated on the floor at the rear of the stage, where they created their legendary wall of sound--a cappella voices with the occasional addition of drums and whistles.

Only three sections really showed the potential greatness lurking within this project. The most striking of these came at the end of a pas de deux, "Boyouwa," a test of wills as much as balance between LINES dancers Chiharu Shibata and Artur Sultanov. Shibata, having collapsed to the floor after a final entanglement with Sultanov, was surrounded, then cradled on the laps of a group of women from the African company. The gentle soothing hands placed upon Shibata recalled the belief in many traditional cultures in the healing power transferred through the hands. And too, the moment exuded a sense of sisterhood that extended across cultures.

The one section in which Nzamba Lela took center stage all by themselves high-lighted the knee-popping strut walk (a quieter cousin of the old James Brown move, the Camel Walk) and percussive hip movements central to the African group's movement vocabulary. The simple unaffectedness of the Nzamba Lela's steps made the increasing waves of pyrotechnics by the LINES dancers seem frenzied and over the top by comparison.

In the end, The People of the Forest fell short of the mark in the inequality between the two groups. One never got the sense that this was a true collaboration. Despite the best of intentions, King highlights the contrasts but rarely finds common ground.