Merian Soto Dance & Performance.

MERIAN SOTO DANCE & PERFORMANCE CONWELL DANCE THEATER, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY, PHILADELPHIA, PA MARCH .18-21, 2004

Dripping, seeping, mixing, merging, and nourishing, Merian Soto's dynamic new La Maquina del Tiempo is a two-hour tapestry of dance and music. The resonant, rhythmic drip-drip-drip from a leaky roof into three galvanized buckets creates an audible metaphor for Soto's staged vision of Latin culture. This "Time Machine" is powered by a trio of gifted dancers--Pablo Amores, Marion Ramirez, and Noemi Segarra--accompanied onstage by two Cuban-born musicians, pianist Elio Villafranca and the young Yunior Terry Cabrera on violin and bass. The combined artistry, energy, and synergy of the five performers often makes the group seem much larger.

La Maquina incorporates the joy and sensuality of social dance forms with the complex rhythms and movements of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora. Created in three sections, the work is a time machine that connects artists across generations, a vivid exhibition of the ways that the arts--particularly popular arts--carry the lifeblood of cultural memory. The concept and direction is by Solo; however, she created the choreography in collaboration with the dancers. Part I, "The Art of Improvisation," is a tour de force of invention and spontaneity that combines the steamy drama of ballroom dance with the rough nobility of flamenco and the raucous, explosive dance forms of Africa.

The work's second part, "Paradise Revue," is an album of four witty, danced vignettes inspired by movie musicals. These include a sensuous faux striptease for Ramirez and an Astaire-like soft-shoe solo for Amores, accompanied by three shadow versions of himself. Costume designer Christine Darch helps Soto layer her eclectic movement vocabulary with the dazzle of spangles, glitz, and exposed flesh. Equally effective are Irene Sosa's video passages, which evoke tropical beaches and island breezes.

Dancer Segarra and bassist Cabrera end the work with a brief, poignant epilogue, "What's Heart Got to Do With It?" Here, Soto shows us more than simple nostalgia for a lost home; instead, she reveals how memories of the past, anomie in the present, and the quest for a safe harbor in the future all come together in the wisdom of the body.

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