Brahms Away for McCauley DanceBy Alexandra Tomalonis Friday
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It takes guts to choreograph to Brahms; unabashed emotion does not suit our postmodern sensibilities. One can either surrender to the music's grandeur, in the spirit of Isadora, or mock it. Lucy Bowen McCauley's "Rapture," which capped the shared program of Bowen McCauley Dance and the CityDance Ensemble at the Terrace Theater on Wednesday night, does a bit of both.
McCauley has a sure command of structure, and for the most part, this setting of Brahms's First Piano Concerto for four women and two men in McCauley's smooth blend of ballet and modern dance is rich and satisfying. Skittery steps, slithers and swoons curl around the music like waves lapping at a pier.
But at times, either because of the dancers' overly bright expressions or because McCauley throws in a gag--like rolling Alison Crosby across the backs of the other dancers like a mermaid in a 1930s musical--the work is uneven in tone. Still, "Rapture" is a masterpiece compared with the drivel served up by many ballet companies these days, and one wishes McCauley's work were more widely known.
Crosby and Olivier Munoz, a fine dancer formerly with the now-defunct Cleveland/San Jose Ballet, seemed to inhabit different worlds in McCauley's "At Last." Crosby was all anxious, vulnerable emotion, Munoz a study in impassive perfect placement.
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