Ce site Web a des limites de navigation. Il est recommandé d'utiliser un navigateur comme Edge, Chrome, Safari ou Firefox.

New Vintage

Isadora Duncan. Doris Humphrey. Pauline Lawrence. These are the spirits invoked by artistic director Dante Puleio for “Women’s Stories.” In its recent run at New York Live Arts, Limón Dance Company honored the women of its founder’s life and artistic heritage with an all-female cast performing vintage works as well as a new version of its most famous. The male lead in “Orfeo” was danced by a woman, and in a beautiful reimagining of “The Moor’s Pavane,” the male roles were removed entirely.

Performance

Limón Dance Company: “Women’s Stories”

Place

New York Live Arts, NY, December 8, 2023

Words

Karen Hildebrand

Lauren Twomley (front), back from left: Natalie Clevenger, Mariah Gravelin,
Deepa Liegel, Jessica Sgambelluri in José Limón's “Orfeo.” Photograph by Christopher Jones

subscribe to the latest in dance


“Uncommonly intelligent, substantial coverage.”

Your weekly source for world-class dance reviews, interviews, articles, and more.

Already a paid subscriber? Login

“Harpies,” a four-minute excerpt from “The Winged” (1966), kicked things off with five feral bird/women creatures that delightfully swarmed the stage, taking bites from their own calves while crouched in a wide-legged squat. While “Harpies” went by in a flash, “Dances for Isadora” (1971) allowed more time to fully meet the five women (Frances Lorraine Samson, Mariah Gravelin, Deepa Liegel, Jessica Sgambelluri, and Savanah Spratt) who in solo turns performed elements of Isadora’s personality and life. Scarves figured prominently in costumes by Charles D. Tomlinson, as they had in Duncan’s work. Spratt stood out in the final section, dressed in translucent black with an enormous purple flounce at her shoulders. She stamped her feet with flamenco passion, dragged one leg in an unbalanced lurch and spun as if she was tipsy. Her solo ended with a rather too literal depiction of Duncan’s famous death, strangled by her scarf.

“Orfeo” (1972),  one of Limón’s last dances, brought the best example of the choreographer’s angular movement vocabulary. Lauren Twombly performed Orfeo as more stag than human, holding a lyre overhead as if to protect—or maybe announce his approach. Three deer-like guardians brought Eurydice (Mariah Gravelin) to him, enshrouded cocoon-like by her bridal veil, while fog poured in from the wings. (Yes, the bare black box space of NYLA was transformed with wings and a rather clunky velvet curtain to resemble a proscenium stage.) As required in the myth, the two studiously avoided looking at each other as they performed an aching pas de deux. Of course, we know how this ends—ultimately Orfeo could not resist looking. The guardians returned and Eurydice was pulled back into her amazing veil to spend eternity in the underworld.

Mariah Gravelin (front), back from left: Natalie Clevenger, Deepa Liegel, Jessica Sgambelluri in José Limón's “Orfeo.” Photograph by Christopher Jones

For the finale, “Women’s Stories” jettisoned its history lesson and dived into a sleek reimagining of Limón’s “The Moors Pavane” by Israeli visual artist Hilla Ben Ari, with an electronic score by Rea Mochiach. By removing the male characters from Limón’s original work based on the story of Othello, Ben Ari allows the relationship of Emilia and Desdemona to take centerstage in “I Must Be Circumstanced.” Yet she restored the quartet formation with an additional pair of dancers who appeared on video screens. Desdemona (Jessica Sgambelluri ) and Emilia (Frances Lorraine Samson) danced live, while Mariah Gravelin and Savanah Spratt appeared human-sized on two video screens that were positioned onstage. It was as if Desdemona and Emilia were each looking into a mirror, but not at their physical doubles. Were they alter egos? Versions of their inner selves? The video dancers’ costumes were paler shades to support the notion of them as aspects of the primary characters. 

Not only did Ben Ari free the women from their male partners, she also freed them from the voluminous skirts and billowy sleeves of the original courtly costumes. Hilla Shapira designed simple jumpsuits that revealed the dancers’ limbs as they made sculptural shapes. There were moments when all four froze in various balances as if in a painting—Sgambelluri, in one instance, was bent forward on one leg with her elbows poking up like folded wings.

Jessica Sgambelluri, Savannah Spratt, Frances Lorraine Samson, Mariah
Gravelin in “I Must Be Circumstanced.” Photograph by Christopher Jones

Though Puleio has said the new work stands on its own, it certainly helped to know the story of Othello, if only to appreciate what Ben Ari did with the handkerchief that sets up Desdemona for tragedy. Emilia, at the revelatory moment, tossed not one but five white handkerchiefs. She just kept pulling them out of her costume, like doves from a magician’s hat. It was an act of complicity unhinged. At the end, the two video dancers stood together within the same screen to witness the corpse of Desdemona, while Emilia, in her anguish, leaned into a deep backbend.

Puleio dedicated these performances to Jennifer Muller, who died earlier this year. Muller had danced with Limón before founding her own company, and Limón set the solo “Sphinx” on her. 

 

Karen Hildebrand


Karen Hildebrand is former editorial director for Dance Magazine and served as editor in chief for Dance Teacher for a decade. An advocate for dance education, she was honored with the Dance Teacher Award in 2020. She follows in the tradition of dance writers who are also poets (Edwin Denby, Jack Anderson), with poetry published in many literary journals and in her book, Crossing Pleasure Avenue (Indolent Books). She holds an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Originally from Colorado, she lives in Brooklyn.

comments

Featured

Riley Lapham, the Come Back
TALKING POINTES | Claudia Lawson

Riley Lapham, the Come Back

Today I have the immense privilege of speaking with Riley Lapham. Riley started dancing early in her home town of Wollongong, and by age 14, she had joined the Australian Ballet School. But from here, Riley's journey takes twists and turns. In her graduation year, Riley missed her final performance due to injury. But in a Center Stage-like moment, the then artistic director David McAllister offered her a contract with the company. In this brave and vulnerable conversation, Riley and I talk about what it's like to join a company while injured, and what it was like to deal with...

FREE ARTICLE
Notes of Black Joy
REVIEWS | Karen Hildebrand

Notes of Black Joy

I can’t remember seeing the Joyce Theater as full of energy. With the hour long “I Am,” Camille A. Brown & Dancers opens the tent of Black joy for all to enter, raising goosebumps and heat on a cold February night.

Plus
Going with the Flow
REVIEWS | Cecilia Whalen

Going with the Flow

Allison Miller, the acclaimed drummer and band leader of the group Boom Tic Boom, presented her multi-media performance, “Rivers in Our Veins,” for a one-matinee-only performance at 92NY on February 2nd.

Plus
Super Nothing
FIELD NOTES | Candice Thompson

Super Nothing

In the world premiere of Miguel Gutierrez’s “Super Nothing,” the quartet of performers fly through the vast, empty black box theater at New York Live Arts, small forms cast out like particles of light.

Plus
Good Subscription Agency