BWW Reviews: L.A. DANCE PROJECT Mesmerizes at BAM

Reflections (2013) opened the evening with the evocative drift of piano compositions by David Lang, performed live by Andrew Zolinsky. The choreography by Benjamin Millepied bloomed as the act of making love, one seamless movement of relationship founded on unity. With themes of interdependence and individuality, the mutual inspiration of the dancers rose with originality and performance. The qualities breathed with the innate tendencies of relationship, common throughout various forms of art as the multifarious expressions of love.

Performed to a capacity house, the opulent expanse of BAM's Howard Gilman Opera House projected a visual design by Barbara Kruger featuring the words "STAY," lifted vertically, and "THINK OF / ME THINKING / OF YOU" on the stage floor. In six movements, Reflections next moved to flamboyant joy in both dance and music, with a solo male dancer light on his feet, hopping about in rapid ecstasy.

The word "GO" was then lowered as two male dancers moved together, portraying an emergent trust among lovers as strangers. As the spotlight shone on the words THINK and STAY, dancers flitted throughout the stage by nuanced staccato rhythms. The words "ME THINKING" were next highlighted as dancers entered and exited from offstage, exhibiting the truth well known behind the scenes of life and in the world of performance art--when pushing someone away you also move where pushed.

Murder Ballades (2013) syncopated dancers with eighth blackbird, a six-piece ensemble performing music by Bruce Dessner through a modernist oeuvre of waving stark colors. The string music and featured percussion offered a textured frame, leaving the masculine and feminine bodies in a light and tasteful immersion of beauty.

Dancers fitted sneakers to their feet, the choreography suggested the mundane, daily act of going out. Music typical of a racing spirit played to the dramatic interchanging roles of each dancer as they moved between spatial possessions with sporadic intensity, matched by a touching fluidity.

Quintett (1993) by Wiliam Forsythe called out into the nostalgic emptiness with a rousing musical theme based on both recorded and live musical production. Gavin Bryars manifested a magical soundscape, starkly lit by an opaque bleakness, with dancers standing motionless and silent. In the dream of a soft old radio voices, music played a melancholic enchantment.

On and offstage, crawling and darting about, the movements of dancers in unison varied with perspective as the live musical ensemble integrated harmonies with effortless subtlety. The vibrant, and often humorous lightness in the rapid movements spelled joy in the midst of a nostalgic poignancy.

The L.A. Dance Project as a whole exuded harmonious energy towards one magical aura of youthful strength and awakened artistry. As the body facilitates a limited frame of movement, requiring the shared variation of a company, so the music befitted the modern harmonies of dance.

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