By Wendy Liberatore //
For more than three decades, the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company has teamed up with other artists to inspire and elevate its vision.
The partnerships have had varying levels of success – some downright exhilarating with others weirdly disappointing. But Artistic Director Ellen Sinopoli’s latest collaboration, this time with the Musicians of Ma’alwyck, seemed just right. The artistry of Sinopoli with violinist and musical Artistic Director Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz, seen together at TheRep on Friday night, was like watching two old friends who easily finished each other’s sentences.
While the give and take between two artists is surely more tense, the two resulting works from their pairing, “Dust Devils” to Missy Mazzoli’s “Death Valley Junction” for string quartet” and “Telling” to James Lee III’s Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet, showed these two have a strong and visionary rapport.
In an introduction, Sinopoli and Schwartz set the scene for both dances and include a story of Marta Becket, a Broadway ballerina who got a flat tire in Death Valley Junction and decided to stay – opening and dancing every night until she was 80 at the Amarosa Opera House. The dance opened with a short documentary of her, that laid out the vast and dry desert. Becket was ultimate dust devil, making way for Sinopoli’s own quartet of spiraling beings.
Created on four of her newest dancers – Liv Butowsky, Kaitlyn Combs, Kyra Pitts and Frances Teppner – the work was a portrait of the desert. The dancers rolled out like tumble weeds punctuated by angular and sudden moves – reminiscent of prickly cacti. While the dancers would briefly interact, they were tossed away by the haunting winds offered up the string quartet that in addition to Schwartz featured Andre Laurent O’Neil on violin cello, Heather Chan on violin and Andrew Snow on viola.
The sense of vastness and breath elicited was alluring and moving.
“Telling” drove farther than atmosphere alone. In four parts, Sinopoli created a society in which dispirit bodies, suspicious of or indifferent to each other, finally found acceptance and a place for all. In it, Sara Senecal, a veteran of the company, served as the work’s central, eye-catching figure – both protective and combative of others while trying to find her place in the fold that was unwelcoming to strangers.
Ultimately, the six dancers melded to form a single solid sculpture that reminded of the strength of a united collective. Was it a cautionary tale for today’s time. Perhaps. But it worked.
The musicians, set off to the side of the stage, included Brett Wery on clarinet, the instrument that dominated the musical landscape overriding some foreboding strings.
Finally, the evening also featured two intriguing and appropriate musical interludes – W. Jay Sydeman’s “Journey Down the American River” and George Walker’s Lyric for String Quartet.
This program will be repeated at 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25, at SUNY Schenectady. It’s definitely worth a look and a listen.
One more thing. Saturday’s show will also be Senecal’s last with the company. The ensemble’s most quietly beautiful and exotic dancer is pregnant with her second child. And while she said she will continue to dance off-stage, she will be seriously missed on the public one.