ZEPHYR DANCE ENSEMBLE
Maureen Janson’s Mallet Ballet starts with a clever idea, however, and goes nowhere. Her dancers use mallets and balls to re-create the polite veneer of croquet and reveal its cutthroat heart. There’s a story of sorts, but it’s not easy to follow. And the combination of modern dance, croquet moves, and mimed interactions is odd without being fun. The idea in Paul Cipponeri’s Quieter and Deeper Than seems old: new-age nature music, tropical-print pants, and familiar solemn choreography make this a pretty ho-hum effort.
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But in the third section we got a puff of cold, fresh air when McCann leapt across the stage, slapping her thighs at the high points. This section bears the marks of Kranicke’s wildness, and McCann’s dancing gives the piece the lift-off it needs. This woman is a wonder: short, with the kind of big legs and chubby arms we don’t usually see in dancers, McCann also has an uncommon stage presence, strength, precision of movement, and musicality. She can just stand there, moving her big toe in half circles over and over, and be mesmerizing. When she scoops the air, the movement has the definition and force of a spoon going through ice cream. Onstage with the other two, she made this a dance; and when she left (to get the ball again), it was two people going through the motions. They weren’t bad–throughout the concert the dancing was quite good–but McCann is unusually fine.
