A NEW DANCE COMPANY TAKES FLIGHT
                    And the Corps Literally Provides a Lift  
<>                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of June 13-20, 2011
                                                                  Vol. 13, No. 107
           The debut of a co-choreographing team---and maybe of a new dance company too---------made for an invigorating, surprisingly large-scale work at the ODC Theater, playing before  a full house June 12. This was the invigorating launching of Garrett + Moulton Productions.
          Janice Garrett, who has been creating dances here for nearly a decade, teamed with Charles Moulton to produce “The Experience of Flight in Dreams,” a high-energy work with high-caliber performers. The five soloists were assisted by a thoroughly drilled group of eight ladies, who were somewhere between a Greek chorus and a corps, giving the company a lift, quite literally. Plus eight live musicians---a rarity among the many modern dance performances that San Francisco seems to turn out almost ad infinitum.
          This initial venture was a strong entry, with word-of-mouth clearly at work in filling the seats of later performances. Of course, no one was flying, despite the title, and there were no trapezes. But the quest of man to reach to the heavens is carried out again and again, culminating in a grand finale of Dudley Flores on a tiny platform held up seven feet off the ground by the ensemble, yearning ever higher. And along the way, the high-energy dances draw the viewer in, like the current of a fast-rushing river.
          The manual dexterity of the corps of eight produced closely coordinated movements, like schools of fish darting about in perfect unison. Such a corps was the inspirational invention of Garrett-Moulton, where they maintain tight formations and execute myriad massed lifts, even of the men. In one of the most arresting images, they form a human staircase, where dancers run up the backbone ramp  as though climbing a pyramid: the classic per-aspera-ad-astra. And they become the personalization of the weather, blowing the breathy winds visibly and audibly.
          The principal dancing figures were nimble, agile, acrobatic, even tossing in a couple of cartwheels. Capping the mobility was the petite, high-flying Tanya Bello, surrounded by a strong male trio: Flores, the powerful Nol Simonse, and the agile Yu-Mien Wu from Taiwan. And Carolina Czechowska paired dynamically with Simonse for a summary duo. There were a few zany touches---Bello dashing about the stage uttering loud wails was one mystifier---but the principal complaint was not about execution, rather about the length---a meager 65 minutes. Not even the length of a modest movie.
          The orchestra, half of it a string quartet, sounded quite professional in its highly mixed repertory.
          (Ed. note: Apologies to readers. Problems with the ISP too prevented prompt uploading of this review. P.H.)
          Garrett + Moulton Productions, a dance company, in “The Experience of Flight in Dreams,” ODC Theater, June 9-12. For info: go online. 

        ©Paul Hertelendy 2011
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           Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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