HOLLAND DANCE FESTIVAL.

HOLLAND DANCE FESTIVAL LUCENT DANSTHEATER THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS NOVEMBER 11--27, 1999 REVIEWED BY HELMA KLOSS

This Holland Dance Festival, called "From time to time," contained seventeen performances and a global satellite conference. "Time," in the sense of history of the past and present, was historically placed between the end of a tumultuous century and the beginning of a new millennium: from Isadora Duncan to virtual reality.

"Above and beyond" was the spectacular reconstruction of a 1925 Balanchilae Le Chant du Rossignol by the Ballet de Monte Carlo, with Matisse's set. Stravinsky's score was played excellently by the Dutch Ballet Orchestra. On the same program these astonishingly diverse dancers performed works by Merce Cunningham and Lucinda Childs, and from their artistic director, Jean-Christophe Mallot, Vers un pays sage, an illusionary and virtuoso piece based on John Adams's Fearful Symmetries. It was an unforgettable event!

In A Celebration of Dance, soloist Risa Steinberg covered a century of dance history with her fine performance of, among others, Doris Humphrey, Isadora Duncan, and Sean Curran (1998).

"Timeless," and with one leg in the next century, was the virtual reality of the Canadian PPS Dance Company with Poles, choreographed and performed by P.P. Savoie and Jeff Hall. Layers of images surrounded the two dancers who had restricted themselves to moving on one spot, center stage, from which they erupted or disappeared. Thunders and earthquakes happened around them--technology created even a third dancer--and left me with only admiration for the effects.

Playing with "timing" is a tool of every choreographer. Ohad Naharin's work for NDT II, the youngsters of the Netherlands Dance Company on opening night was a combination of existing choreographies that combined speed and fun in the movements. Rui Horta added a sensual, youthful piece about lonely individuals, and Shasaku Takeuchi made a love duet for two almost-naked dancers gliding through an oily material, which left me with a dejavu feeling.

Another Israeli, Barak Marshall, used intricate rhythms and made his dancers move like acrobats, fast and full of spirit. In his Emma Goldman's Wedding, ethnic references were nicely interwoven in the dance through the stories told by his Yemenite mother, Margalit Oved, a former dancer.

Michael Schumacher gave form to his ideas onstage in his performance Michael Schumacher on Time. "Time" is an unknown factor in the structured improvisation performed by his highly skilled dancers and musicians, among them Michael Vatcher. The dance occurred on two split-level stages and is a sequence of exciting, unexpected dance phrases. The dancers spoke out frankly. When Vatcher freaked out in animalistic movements, a fellow dancer brought him to a stop. He assured the audience, "He is A-OK again," saved from the pain of dance, which restated the theme--health--of the festival and conference.