GRIOT NEW YORK
A telling moment comes in a duet called “Spring Yaounde.” Yaounde is the capital of Cameroon, which has nothing to do with this seduction dance for a man and woman dressed only in bikini trunks; the woman’s soft breasts dominate the dance’s image. When it begins, the woman (Valentina Alexander) is in something like a classical ballet position–an attitude derriere en pointe, balanced on one fully extended foot while the other leg is lifted behind and bent at the knee, a position that demands both strength and the willful disregard of pain. Though the shape Alexander assumes looks great, it is subtly different from the ballet position in which the torso is directly over the leg, which should be directly over the middle of the ball of the foot so that the weight of the torso falls directly into the floor. Alexander’s foot is not fully extended and her legs are neither fully turned in nor out. It’s not that Alexander’s position is bad classical form, but it’s a position that’s next to impossible to hold because it demands immense strength in the foot, hips, and back to fight off gravity. But Alexander maintains the position for minutes as she’s slowly turned in a circle by her partner, who holds her in an unorthodox way, literally supporting her. When Alexander relaxes from her torturous position into her partner’s arms, the emotional relief is also palpable–a strong, enduring woman surrenders to the embrace of her man.
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If we strip away the things that don’t work, what’s left is Wynton Marsalis’s music and Fagan’s movement. Marsalis’s music is always fresh and often more; his music for “The Disenfranchised” has some of Charles Mingus’s moaning choruses and trapped desperation.
