The Wallis in Beverly Hills is spearheading a dance renaissance in Los Angeles, forming strategic creative partnerships with the companies they present. Their most recent creative partnership is with BodyTraffic, a Los Angeles based contemporary dance company that soars into the stratosphere. A concert of their most recent work was presented on December 6 and 7th. This extraordinary troupe offered a platform of three different programs highlighting the exceptional skills of their highly trained and engaging dancers.
The innovative first piece, a world premiere, was called “Mayday,” choreographed to the music of Buddy Holly, the rock ‘n’ roller who led the way in the rockabilly style with hits like “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue,” just a few of the songs choreographed by Trey McIntyre. Both a playful homage to Holly’s music and an ominous reminder of his death in a plane crash at the age of 22, McIntyre makes full use of the company’s strengths. In unisex croptop gray suits, Holly nerdy horn-rimmed glasses, slapping rhythm on their bare stomachs, they moved in sync, flowingly to the music as they undulated in and out of formation, constantly followed by a toy airplane, manned by each dancer at various points in the piece, as a constant reminder of what will come. The smooth back-and-forth movements of elbows, legs, heads, arms, perfectly matched to the beats of the various songs, has you smiling from the beginning until the climax. This is choreography that highlights the range and training of the various dancers, with Chandler Davidson and his blonde buzzcut leaping and pirouetting gracefully with his seamless athleticism. Joan Rodriguez, ballet-trained in Cuba, was another standout. His extension and leaps were breathtaking. Katie Garcia, easily melds the worlds of ballet and modern, capturing the stage in her solos. Choreographer McIntyre made full use of each dancer’s specialized training.
“I Forgot the Start,” choreographed by Matthew Neenan, was a poetic ode to love using the music of Sinéad O’Connor among others. The dancers were very good, coupling and uncoupling as the music by the various artists suggested, and that was, to a certain extent, the point of the piece with its theme of love and the loss thereof.
“Incense Burning on a Saturday Morning: The Maestro,” the final performance of the evening, sent the company out on a high note. It wasn’t so much the choreography by Juel D. Lane that excelled but, instead, it was the design of the composition that set it apart from almost anything you have seen or will see in the future. Lane was attempting to portray artist Ernie Barnes, a Los Angeleno, in his studio and it was the innovative lighting and video design that propelled this piece off the stage and into the audience. Opening on a single dancer, Ty Morrison as Barnes, in his studio, wielding a brush as he feigns painting on a canvas. As his hands move across that canvas, the glass-like scrim between the audience and him fills with the brushstrokes he is making to breathtaking effect. He continues filling the canvas and concurrently the scrim as his muse arrives in the form of dancer Alana Jones, voguing for the painter. Enter the corps, portraying both the wildly primary-colored paints and, eventually, the vibrant dancers swirling, leaping and surrounding the two as the artist’s vision is realized and we see Barnes’ most famous painting, “The Sugar Shack” take shape with the model and the paints becoming one with the characters on the canvas. The wildly free, yet coordinated undulating motions of the “paints” energizes the choreography and helps tell an enrapturing story.
This night was particularly celebratory as Artistic Director Tina Finkelman Berkett introduced each choreographer, sitting in the audience among those who would soon become their rabid fans. The enthusiasm of this crowd, many of whom had never before heard of BodyTraffic, built with each number, ending with standing ovations for the dancers and the choreographer, brought to the stage for a bow with the performers.
