Joseph Holmes
I was right. Kevin Iega Jeff, the new artistic director of Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theatre, is the kind of guy who exudes charisma in theater lobbies and generates standing ovations in the theaters themselves. At its best, his choreography goes straight to the heart; at its worst, it’s slightly kitschy, in a musical theater way. Given his background, his knack for theater comes as no surprise. He debuted on Broadway at age 17 in The Wiz, then went on to create the dances for Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It and for an international tour of Porgy and Bess. At age 22 he formed Jubilation! Dance Company, which featured the same eclectic blend of jazz, modern, and ballet as the Joseph Holmes troupe. A dozen years later, he’s taken on this new post.
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Like the old troupe, the new Joseph Holmes has a mission to empower people through positive art. But the dancers get a little too clean and happy in Junto, a spritely number set to New Age jazz by Pat Metheny. It might have been Metheny’s music that put me off, but the dancers’ big, bright smiles probably had something to do with it: they were just a little too “gee, ain’t this swell!” to be believable. On the other hand, when Iega explores potentially painful subjects he doesn’t get mired in angst (very refreshing, given the slew of preachy, heavy-handed concerts in this year’s Spring Festival of Dance). Even his Church of Nations–which asks the question “Should the houses in which we worship give consent to death and destruction in the name of God?”–stops short of all-out condemnation, instead exploring the human, emotional side of church leaders confronted with the possibility of war.
