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Northwest Dance Project's season opener showcases three world premieres from local and international choreographers, incorporating contemporary movement with classical elements. The title of the show, New Now Wow!, might be a little hacky, but in this case, it's a name well-deserved.
The evening opens with Yin Yue's Between Rise and Fall, which sends the audience into a dark world. It opens with two dancers being manipulated by a third dancer, who wields an unspoken power that he uses to pivot and move the others at his will. This is about the only easily palpable emotion in the piece—you can see the frustration in the two dancers' movements, as well as their tentativeness and fear when they are finally allowed to stand on their own. The rest of the piece shows off a dynamic interplay between a bigger group of seven dancers—their highly concentrated moves display tight athleticism and, at times, a willingness to experiment. At one point, two dancers run back and forth across the stage as if playing a game of tag. Later, one dancer bobs his head like a duck as he slowly falls to the floor. Set to atmospheric vocals anchored by deep, solid beats, the moves often correspond in tight chops, reverberating rolls or sudden pivots in vastly different directions. It doesn't feel particularly emotional, but instead sets a fast, often interesting pace for the remainder of the show.
The show rides this momentum on to the next piece, At Some Hour You Return, a standout work by Czech choreographer Jirí Pokorny. Pokorny is known for his use of stark lighting and involved group work, and this piece—his debut in North America—doesn't disappoint. Opening with a slow-motion strobe and low-end, industrial sounding beats, we quickly get pulsing waves of movement that sway unexpectedly between tight, sharp angles and smooth, fluid circles. The six dancers often move together in a billowing, bobbing mass before suddenly breaking off into brief solos or duos—an aggressive, backwards crab walk here, a beautifully controlled, almost anti-gravity-looking lift there. It's like watching in fascination the path of a bacteria cell under a microscope, moving in functional—if not sporadic—bursts. Pokorny's timing of movement to music is extraordinarily thoughtful, with each flick of the wrist, kick and each roll optimally timed to the emotional moments of the notes, which helps create powerfully striking moments that linger.
The third piece, Minh Tran's Unexpected Turbulence, starts off with a scene most people know: the pre-flight safety demonstration. The difference here is that instead of one flight attendant going through the motions, the nine company dancers take on posed and often robotic movements, clad in vibrant colors and wearing fake, mechanical smiles. Compared to the moody darkness of the previous pieces, this feels humorous and fresh. On opening night, the dancers got the audience laughing with their startled reenactments of turbulence and synchronized swimming line during the lifejacket speech, with movement just exaggerated enough to be silly while still recognizable. For all the fun it begins with, though, Tran's piece is rapid and intense, especially backed by an atmospheric original score by Heather Perkins. Hollow bells ring as the dancers spin, fly and leap across the stage, often moving as a group in different layers that are fascinating to watch. At one point, a dancer tosses his partner to another dancer in a gutsy and exhilarating move. In another moment, Ching Ching Wong draws attention with her attitude derrières and brisk battements in her jumps, a classical nod in an otherwise contemporary-feeling piece. Though it's difficult for the piece itself to sustain such high energy, the dancers themselves don't lagâwhich, given the combined intensity of New Now Wow!, is the biggest âwowâ of all.
SEE IT: New Now Wow! is at PSU's Lincoln Performance Hall, 1620 SW Park Ave. 7:30 pm Saturday, Oct. 25. $29-$49. Tickets here.
WWeek 2015