By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Dancers have a lot to say that cannot be expressed in words.
That’s the conclusion I reach every time I venture out to write about contemporary dance as I did last night to see a dress rehearsal of “Impulse 2025,” the winter concert by the BGSU dance program.
The one-act set of eight pieces offers a wide-ranging exploration of emotion expressed with artistic physicality, a melding of aesthetics and athletics.
Each gesture, whether a spin or a hand stand, is like the brush of a calligrapher’s pen, beautiful even if you aren’t fluent in the language.
“Impulse 2025” is on stage tonight (Friday, Jan. 31) and Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Donnell Theatre in the Wolfe Center for the Arts. Click for tickets.
The show opens on a welcomed note — a trip to the beach. Nice to see on a wet, wintry night.“Estero Boulevard” choreographed by Adrienne Letner with input from the company opens with James Brown’s signature yelp as “I Got You (I Feel Good),” sets the tone. The dancers (Kyra Bond, Jenna Hanson, Ellie Kotsos, Leah Lattanzi, Kamryn Marcha, Jillian Marroquin, Sammi Martin, and Sky Yang) frolic in front of a projected backdrop. The sunny day gives way to night, and James Brown gives way to “Ocean” by Violin Nature. The dancers move like wraiths on the darkened stage.
Then Three Little Birds by Branches signals a return to the seaside, now in the aftermath of a hurricane. A slide show finds the beach is a wreck as are the neighborhoods nearby. Construction equipment appears, as well as a few hardy beachcombers. The dance ends with a sense of hope that the beach will be ready for fun so.
The next piece is an exploration of anxiety. Tammy Metz Starr choreographed and takes the lead in “The Dimming Behind Door Number Three.” Starr’s movements seem anguished. In a doorway behind we see the shadows of three dancers (Chloe Raymond, Reilly Sommer, and Leah Taylor) acting out an obscure drama that can be read as the cause of the lead dancer’s distress.
The next piece “All I Am” brings on the exuberance. The contemporary tap number is choreographed by Colleen Murphy, the dance program coordinator, to the music Jess Glynne. The dancers (Katherine Ash, Leah Bennington, Avery Charville, Ella Grebey) are all smiles from their heads to their taps.
The mood shifts again when student Sky Yang presents the solo number she choreographed. Her sweeping athletic motions shift with the lighting to the atmospheric sounds of Hans Zimmer. (Steve Boone did the lighting for the show.)
“Seabirds,” a revival of a 2018 piece by Starr, is the most complex. The dancers (Jenna Hanson, Ellie Kotsos, Kamryn Marcha, Jillian Marroquin, Sammi Martin, Kayla Ochier, Chloe Raymond, Kiley Stone, and Leah Taylor) skitter about the stage like seabirds tossing the occasional paper projectile out to the audience.
Starr also choreographed the story ‘Lost and Found” in which two women (Mahlia Proctor, Sky Yang), strangers at first, find a bond over two boxes, one labeled, “lost and found.”
The introspective “Eclipses” features Stephannie Gearhart, a professor in the English Department, floating across the stage making dramatic use of a blue veil.
“Impulse 2025” ends, as those who attended previous winter concerts expects, with an explosion of tap. Twenty exuberant dancers take to the stage to the sounds of Mika’s “Celebrate.” (Alejandro Alvarez, Leah Bennington, Kadyn Cassidy, Alyssa Ciroli, Avery Charville, Marissa Dawson, Alexa Draye, Ella Grebey, Lizzie High, Carissa Krusinski, Leah Lattanzi, Sammi Martin, Kyle Metzler, Morgan Morse, Gabby Morvatz, Mahlia Proctor, Reilly Sommer, Leah Taylor, Jasmine Warren, and Sky Yang).
That certainly added a bounce to my step as I went out into the cold rain.
