ZEPHYR DANCE ENSEMBLE
Jazz-dance companies have often absorbed concert dance forms as well: ballet and modern. The excellent technique for which the Hubbard Street and Joseph Holmes companies are known comes from daily ballet classes. Yet the works they perform are often modern: Hubbard Street has been focusing on Daniel Ezralow and Twyla Tharp, while Joseph Holmes grows its own talent, like choreographer Randy Duncan, through regular classes in Graham technique. Meanwhile the Chicago companies that perform only jazz, such as Joel Hall and David Puszh, are not performing as often as in the past. A former Joseph Holmes dancer, Winifred Haun, is working very hard to become a good modern choreographer without betraying her jazz background. The writing seems to be on the wall: jazz companies today need ballet technique and modern choreography.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Zephyr Dance Ensemble, a small company, has done a good job of sailing through these troubled waters. They’ve asked many local jazz and modern choreographers to create dances for the five-woman troupe, and Zephyr’s artistic director, Michelle Kranicke, has contributed some works. In fact they have pushed so far in the direction of modern dance that they now call themselves a modern repertory company. Their older works span a range from jazz to modern; of the four performed recently at the Weinstein Center, the best were by jazz choreographers using decidedly modern methods.
A premiere by Sabine Fabie, Whiff, or Falling From the Sky, is the most substantial modern dance the company has done. It begins with four dancers (Tammy Cheney, Kranicke, Amanda McCann, and Caroline Walsh) standing in a tight circle, facing inward. A dancer seems to lose consciousness and slumps, only to be caught by another dancer and hauled back to her feet. As the circle expands, dancers slump and stumble across the ten-foot diameter into another dancer’s arms, or simply slide to the floor. Fabie starts to contrast this simple theme with others: a quiet, stretchy solo by Reynolds; spasmodic twitching like hamsters in convulsions by dancers lying on the floor. Each type of movement is passed from dancer to dancer, until the dance ends with three women in a tight circle, as at the beginning, while two others lie on the floor twitching. The optimism of falling dancers who expect to be caught is balanced against the pessimism of dancers who seem to be having nightmares. Fabie’s method–using movement alone to make her point–is quintessentially modern.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Michael Wisnieux.
