Cal Performances presents Bach Dances featuring RIOULT Dance NY
Zellerbach Playhouse
U.C. Berkeley, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, CA 94305 USA
7:00 PM, Sunday, May 7, 2017

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[7:04 PM lights down, announcements, waiting]

Views of the Fleeting World (2008); set to unidentified selections from J.S. Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue), BWV 1080 (1746)

1. [7:08 PM] Orchard
2. [7:12 PM] Gathering Storm
3. [7:15 PM] Wild Horses
4. [7:19 PM] Dusk, featuring Corinna Lee Nicholson and Michael Spencer Phillips
5. [7:23 PM] Summer Wind, featuring Charis Haines and Jere Hunt
6. [7:28 PM] Moonlight, featuring Sara Elizabeth Seger and Brian Flynn
7. [7:33 PM] Flowing River
   [work ends 7:36 PM]

City (2010); set to J.S. Bach: Violin Sonata in G Major, BWV 1019 (1723), featuring Catherine Cooch, Corinna Lee Nicholson, Michael Spencer Phillips, and Sabatino A. Verlezza

1. [7:37 PM] Allegro
2. [7:41 PM] Largo
3. [7:44 PM] Allegro
4. [7:48 PM] Adagio
5. [7:52 PM] Allegro
   [set ends 7:56 PM]

[8:13 PM lights down]

Polymorphous (2015); set to selected excerpts from J.S. Bach: excerpts from Das wohltemperierte Klavier (The Well-Tempered Clavier) (1722), featuring Brian Flynn, Charis Haines, Jere Hunt, and Sara Elizabeth Seger

1. [8:13 PM] (untitled)
2. [8:16 PM] (untitled)
3. [8:19 PM] (untitled)
4. [8:22 PM] (untitled)
5. [8:24 PM] (untitled)
6. [8:26 PM] (untitled)
   [work ends 8:28 PM]

Celestial Tides (2011) set to J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-flat Major, BWV 1051 (1718)

1. [8:31 PM] Allegro
2. [8:39 PM] Adagio, ma non tanto, featuring Charis Haines, Jere Hunt, Sara Elizabeth Seger, and Michael Spencer Phillips
3. [8:46 PM] Allegro
   [set ends 8:52 PM; all off after a couple minutes for bows and applause]

• Chaney Briggs: apprentice dancer;
• Joseph Columbus: apprentice dancer;
• Catherine Cooch: dancer;
• Jake Deibert: dancer;
• Amanda Esposito: apprentice dancer;
• Brian Flynn: dancer;
• Charis Haines: dancer;
• Jere Hunt: dancer;
• Melanie Kimmel: dancer;
• Corinna Lee Nicholson: dancer;
• Michael Spencer Phillips: dancer;
• Sara Elizabeth Seger: dancer;
• Sabatino A. Verlezza: dancer.

• Spencer Anderson: production manager;
• Brian Clifford Beasley: projection animation;
• Harry Feiner: scenic design;
• David Finley: lighting design;
• Amy Harrison: executive director;
• Joyce Herring: associate artistic director;
• Pascal Rioult: choreographer, artistic director;
• Karen Young: costume design.

Tonight's dance show was quite interesting to watch, though I found the melange of influences to be a bit confusing. As the program was titled Bach Dances, I expected that the music would be all Bach, but a variety of natural and electronic ambient sounds were used as interstitial pieces: overall it was interesting enough, though I failed to grasp why movements of a classical piece should be interrupted by chirping crickets, or a raging thunderstorm, or blips and bleeps of a synthesizer. In similarly confusing fashion, almost every dance was accompanied by video projections. In the first work these were mostly abstract washes of color, not much different than could be effected with stage lighting. But later pieces were far different: defocused scenes of pedestrians walking through New York City, close-up views of modern sky scrapers that panned up or down or sideways or slant-ways, random or moiré-like geometric patterns, or dancers paired against abstract projected shadows of other dancers performing the same dance. Again, interesting, and sometimes thought-provoking, but also disorienting and distracting. Art! It's not always easy to digest! So would I go see this troupe again? Yeah sure, you betcha!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2017 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2017 event list! ☸ On to the next event!