Sensedance.

Choreographer Henning Rubsam, the artistic director of Sensedance, has a knack for freating the emotional subtext of a narrative situation with power and sensitivity. The premiere of his Jephte (St. Mark's Church, March 21-24, 1996) was performed to the oratorio by Giacomo Carissimi, presented live by a chorus of eleven singers under the leadership of pianist Beata Moon. According to the Old Testament, Jephte promised God that in exchange for victory over the Ammonites he would sacrifice the first person to greet him upon his triumphant return. His young daughter (exquisitely danced by Violetta Klimczewska, who alternated with Lesley Kennedy) inadvertently became that unfortunate person.

The centerpiece of Jephte is a stunning duet that explores many facets of the archetypal father-daughter relationship--tenderness, mutual dependency, adoration, and eroticism. As Jephte keeps his promise and the executed daughter is raised aloft by bearers, spectators are confronted with the concept that the Christian doctrine of compassion helped to end the practice of human sacrifice as the new faith was carried throughout the world. The program at St. Mark's also included Rubsam's Dolphins and Antelopes, a playfully abstract animal collage.