Bekerman Dance Company premiered its new dance "Black & White last Saturday at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center.
"Black & White" is made up of seven dance sections and two purely audiovisual sections. According to the company's artistic director Mariana Bekerman this new dance, "tackles universal issues of human existence such as power, death and celebrating life."
At the core of "Black & White" were two consecutive sections, "Premonition" and "Bashert."
Of "Premonition" Bekerman said in a previous interview, " Premonition" looks to express fear, power and the unknown--but I want it to be sexy at the same time!"
"Premonition" opened with black and white images of destruction projected onto a screen, such as flooding or severe wind damage. Dancers are dressed in earth-toned costumes. Icelandic composer Helgi Hauksson composed an alternative music score for this section.
Notable was how Bekerman's choreography often called for, and eight dancers were able to speedily negotiate a small stage in groups of 3-3-2.
Two moments in "Premonition," while not "sexy," clearly expressed fluid ideas of fear, power and the unknown.
One sequence has Hooba Bjornvold seize Lindsay Hilscher by the arms and then drive her to the ground. He stands over her, menacingly staring into her eyes. Hilscher looks up and meekly meets Bjornvold's gaze, anxiety etched across her face.
In a different sequence, Brittany Young's hands took hold of Luis Raul Davila's waist and supported his weight. His body is arched vulnerably in a partial reverse-C, eyes toward the ceiling, unreadable by the audience.
Then for something completely different was the section "Bashert," (Yiddish word, which roughly translates as "fated").
"Bashert" started with a color image of what appeared to be a light red flower petal. Dancers are dressed in varicolored pastel costumes. Improvising off the dancers' movements, Jazz pianist Eric Lewis played mostly soft music, occasionally punctuated by rhythmic, crystalline chords or fluid runs across the keyboard.
In "Premonition" and throughout much of "Black & White," Bekerman has the dancers working kinetically, often pitting a single dancer against multiple dancers throughout different zones of the stage.
"Bashert" is the calm point of "Black & White," acting as sharp relief to the constant flow. As "Bashert" drew to a close, the five female dancers came together and sustained a low flat arabesque. If only fate in real life equaled this elegant display of line and balance which, lingers in the memory.
My main critique of "Black & White" is with the two solo dances: "Nature," featuring Bjornevold and "Nova Nemo," featuring Bekerman herself.
One motif of "Black & White" is change, and the solos did not quite mesh with that motif. An audience member could keenly sense Bekerman's flirtatious sauciness or palpably feel Bjornevold's physicality, but these dance sequences were static posings by comparison to the rest of "Black & White." To my taste "Nature" was an opportunity to have Bjornevold improvise to a drum solo of Mickey Hart, which holds the potential of athletic fireworks.
"Black & White" has the ingredients of eye-catching dancers, thought provoking sequences and touching expressiveness. When those qualities coalesce in live performance, an artistic director is cooking.
The next performance of the dance will be Jan. 16 at the Endicott Performing Arts Center.
To the audience members in upstate New York: bon appetit.
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