Two elegant, humorous, powerful and contrasting commentaries on life’s apparent choices reinforced the vital role that Dance Alloy Theater plays in Western Pennsylvania’s cultural life.
Performances Friday through Monday at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater in East Liberty concluded the group’s 30th anniversary year and showed its artistic vision is burning brightly, indeed.
“Open Seating” by Cleveland-based David Shimotakahara begins with an allusion to the old game musical chairs. The entire action takes place with four dancers and four chairs within a 20-foot-square box that is marked with white tape on the stage floor. At first, the dancers all move in unison — stopping, sitting , stretching and then getting up again to take the next seat that comes around when it’s time to sit.
But soon after the start, one of the dancers picks a chair out of rotation, and the story really begins. Power relations develop, as one person pushes another away from a chosen chair and partnering possibilities are explored.
Stephanie Dumaine’s performance was a triumph of fleshed-out characterization, including revealing a romantic heart — under a tough exterior — that flourished in a long solo.
“Open Seating” features duets that start sitting on chairs, first by two taller dancers — Maribeth Maxa and guest Mark Otloski — who don’t click.
Above-the-waist movements in the chairs, including geometric hand gestures, do click for the shorter Michael Walsh and Maxa, who naturally get up and dance, and quite romantically together.
Yelling “Stop!” is the way the other dancers get to cut in on the pair of the moment, making the game musical lovers instead of musical chairs. The interruptions become more frequent, and sometimes quite frustrating.
It’s all a wonderful elaboration of the initial image of choosing chairs and ends up emphasizing the practical limitations on making lasting choices in a closed system of four dancers and four chairs.
Even when conveying the boredom of limited choices, “Open Seating” is never boring.
“At Once There Was a House” by Dance Alloy Theater’s artistic director Beth Corning is a witty and powerful study of character and interaction. It opens with the cast introducing itself to the audience, as a family might. Adrienne Misko was ditsiness herself, breaking into uncontrollable nervous laughter as she tried to say who she is. The feeling of internal pressure was palpable.
Corning’s dynamics include the reactions of the other dancers to The Giggler, the strongest of which is provided by Dumaine. While Misko is a bundle of nervous energy, Dumaine’s facial and body language say “get a grip,” and her own words were focused and assertive.
Scott Lowe’s solo was anguished, while his motionless form at the end of the piece was an uncompromising admission that the pressure of freedom — to find oneself, to be oneself, and to be accepted for who one is — is deadly serious.
Dance Alloy’s performances Monday evening were wonderfully precise in both timing and placement, and took full advantage of David Covey’s superb lighting.
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