An Evening of GracefulnessBy Jeff Hoodock Monday, April 12 1998
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There is a middle ground between ballet and modern dance, where the dancers, though skilled in the traditional phrases and arabesques, have come down off their toes. Bowen McCauley Dance works this vein earnestly and with quiet grace. The troupe's spring concert at Gunston Theater 1 Saturday evening featured five examples of this hybrid genre. Light classical scores for each piece and a single choreographer's touch lent consistency to the program.
In "What'll Ya 'Ave, Luv?," set to a selection of Purcell's effetely rowdy "Tavern Songs," three damsels wove their tipsy way through a series of gentle revels. In "Tempered Beauty," Lucy Bowen McCauley evoked the fragile sentimentality of a romantic German legend. She was accompanied by soprano Susan Bender and pianist Laurie Bunn, whose rendering of Schubert's "Wiegenlied" was one of the show's highlights. "4/Bach" and "It's About Time" were essentially the same sort of lyrical ensemble responses to stately musical scores. The latter piece, with its brilliant red costumes and lighting, was considerably more interesting. Perhaps the strongest offering was "At Last," a duet danced by Alison Crosby and Peter Stark.The courtship-to-consummation theme never seems to grow stale for choreographers, and it was given depth and some fresh twists. Crosby's performance was particularly vivid; both her acting and dancing were polished and convincing. |