Closing out its 59th season with DEUX, Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) brought out two crown jewels from its extraordinary catalog with performances that once again put the exclamation point on why the company is heralded as one of modern dance’s most distinguished institutions.
Conditioned with stamina, grace and agility that would be the pride of elite dancers or athletes in any geographical market, the company’s eight dancers made light work of two virtuosic pieces of choreography: José Limón’s The Winged (1966) and Zvi Gotheiner’s Chairs (1992). in The Winged, four guest dancers (Joseph ‘jo’ Blake, Tara McArthur, Kara Komarnitsky and Bayley Smallwood) joined the company (Caleb Daly, Daniel Do, Lindsey Faber, Jacob Lewis, Megan O’Brien, Alexander Pham, Ursula Perry and Caitlyn Richter).
Reiterating a case that RDT has proven repeatedly, the level of performances in DEUX illuminate why generations of choreographers from around the world have consistently assented to setting new work or restaging their classics upon the company’s dancers in Salt Lake City.
The 12 dancers for Limón’s The Winged set the proper historical lens on one of the legendary choreographer’s most abstract works, which sets in movement the flight patterns of birds and the innate human desire to experience the sensation of flying. The Limón Dance Company performed the work for the first time 59 years ago at the Connecticut College American Dance Festival and it is among his most popular. As stated in a preview at The Utah Review, Limón was the first major guest choreographer RDT invited during its first year of operations and the company now has five of his works in the repertoire.
With music by Lief Ellis, the metaphorical work is set in eight sections, featuring the ensemble as well as solos, duos and smaller groups at various points. In the opening dawn chorus representing avian species including robins and harpies, the dozen dancers were mesmerizing, with rapid tempo beats of footwork, impressive displays of vibrations and murmurations, turns and swirls, and acrobatic leaps crossing the stage. This 1966 work seems just as freshly invented today, mixing lyricism and humor with impeccable technique. Solos and duets shone in metaphorical punch during the Friday evening performances: Richter and Pham in Sky Rite, Do’s capricious take on Eros, Faber and Lewis reminding us of the cunning genius and ill-fated hubris in Borrowed Wings and the story of Daedalus and Icarus, Faber telegraphing the transcendent fearlessness and fearsomeness of the Sphinx and Daly as the indomitable, incredible Pegasus.
The company’s octet was equally resplendent in seven excerpts from Gotheiner’s Chairs, also an abstract work that gives dancers plenty of space to play within the range of human emotions and interactions that evoke their personalities. This was most evident in O’Brien’s fabulous solo, a gorgeous duet featuring Faber and Perry and the evening’s most striking expression of intimacy in the duet featuring Lewis and Pham (partners in life off the stage as well). Ever since RDT first performed the work in 1998, it has been extremely popular with audiences. This was the first work Gotheiner created after he retired from dancing on stage. With simple chairs as the only props, the work is wholly imbued with a natural theatrical sense about positive and negative space on stage and how it reflects our actual boundaries in our interactions and relationships. RDT dancers consistently have dialed in effectively to the nine Gotheiner works, including six that the company has commissioned from the choreographer. This specific Chairs performance was on par with the kinetic perfection that RDT dancers have achieved with Dabke, another Gotheiner masterpiece.
Photo Credit: Sharon Kain.
Prior to the Limón performance, a short documentary about the famed choreographer was screened. It is a sensational piece of dance history featuring comments from figures including a Bill T. Jones, Judith Jamison and Bruce Marks (a former artistic director of Ballet West). One cannot emphasize enough just how important Salt Lake City is in the American history of dance. Within less than a handful of years in the mid-1960s, three dance institutions were established that are known by artists everywhere on the planet: Ballet West, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company and Repertory Dance Theatre. Choreographers from six continents travel to set their work on dancers in the Beehive State. Their presence has inspired one of the nation’s most far-ranging communities of independent amd entrepreneurial dance artistry. Put simply: if you want to see some of the best dance in the U.S., it is right here in Utah. Next season, RDT will be the third major Utah dance institution to celebrate its diamond anniversary (60th).