High Dance Drame In A Cool Space. (Reviews: National).

HIGH DANCE DRAMA IN A COOL SPACE GROUNDWORKS DANCE THEATER NORTHSIDE ICE HOUSE AKRON, OHIO SEPTEMBER 7-15, 2001

To lure new audiences to serious contemporary dance, GroundWorks Dancetheater of Cleveland stages performances in alternative spaces of historic and architectural interest throughout northeastern Ohio. The most spectacular site, the Northside Ice House in Akron, was built in 1892 to store ice for delivery to Akron homes before the era of electric refrigeration. To transform the mammoth old ice box into a modern theatrical setting, Technical Coordinator Dennis Dugan brought in electricity and designed lighting that washed the old brick walls with evocative colors, shadows, and patterns. For the premiere of Artistic Director David Shimotakahara's Migration, Dugan also suspended gigantic cloth panels from the structure's fifty-five-foot-high ceiling.

The dreamlike duet introduced male and female figures as mysterious shadows behind the translucent panels. When the billowing curtains rose, the characters emerged wearing silk sarongs in gorgeous shades ranging from turquoise to lime green, designed by Robin VanLear and Sue Berry. Weaving around each other in a nonstop flow of ballet-based movements, the dancers followed separate paths that periodically took them behind the panels that silently rose and fell from infinite black space. At the climax, they ran forward, pushing the fabric aside and gravitating toward each other in a lyrical dance of low lifts and close embraces.

In the opening-night performance, Shimotakahara and Artistic Associate Amy Miller looked like equal partners exploring different territories and ultimately coming together in a trusting relationship. The following weekend, when tiny dancer Felise Bagley took the female role, the piece suggested the migratory patterns of exotic birds traveling to distant lands, arriving at a safe haven and finally performing a slow mating dance.

The otherworldly sound environment created by composer-percussionist Gustavo Aguilar and his wife, vocalist Gaelyn Aguilar, filled the reverberant space with traditional Macedonian melodies, Chinese sonorities, and Indonesian tone colors. A mesmerizing mix of song, rhythm, sustained movement and visual effects, the piece capped a fascinating program of new music and dance. The evening opened with a percussion ritual and progressed seamlessly through an inventive timpani piece, an intense performance of Open Seating and a virtuoso solo for maracas and pre-recorded tape. To sustain the solemn mood and give the dancers a breather, Aguilar played the percussion solos, John Bergamno's Tulumbaz and Javier Alvarez's Temazcal, as if each piece were a religious ceremony honoring an ancient culture.

Dancers Shimotakahara, Miller, Bagley, and Damien Highfield (all past or present members of Ohio Ballet) threw themselves into the fierce physicality of Shimotakahara's Open Seating, a series of complex vignettes that expressed territorial conflicts, shifting relationships, humorous everyday situations, and individual personality quirks. The impact of the clearly conceived choreography was heightened by stark lighting, basic black costumes, the percussive use of four chairs and non-melodic music composed and recorded by Aguilar.

Because GroundWorks, founded in 1998, is still in the early stages of building a repertoire, none of its dances are site-specific. Open Seating has been successfully performed by numerous casts in a variety of settings. But it is hard to imagine Migration making such a dramatic impression anywhere else.