Barnard Project review

When you hear that The Barnard Project is a collaboration between Barnard dance students and professional choreographers, if you are honest with yourself, you probably expect to see bland choreography that emphasizes classroom exercises executed by eager if not experienced dancers. If that is your expectation then Dance Theater Workshop’s presentation is a delightful surprise.

Arrayed in matching yellow dresses, the ten women of RoseAnne Spradlin’s Peyton Place Re-Mix begin with a section of unaltered rhythmic pacing. Throughout this section the dancers work as a seamless creature or as one dancer with twenty miming shadows. The effect is unearthly and mesmerizing. Underscored with audio clips and dialogue from the movie of the same title, Spradlin’s deconstructionist take on the 1958 film gives us choppy incoherent glimpses of male/female interactions. Perhaps to provide a modern parallel, the choreography is interspersed with mimed scenes between a teenager and a man with the text of their conversations appearing behind them in projections. The outcome of relationships in both cases is vague.

Frost choreographed by Gerald Casel creates parings of duets using broad and balanced movement. Set to a new music by Rachel and Ben Frost as well as one section accompanied with non-verbal vocal scoring by some of the performers, the piece explores the cannoning of duets with rotating partners.

In Yours Amanda Loulaki strives to create a work where the audience is free to create their own associations throughout the performance. What unfolds is a world of scattered spoken and movement phrases. The dancer’s efforts to redefine Ms. Loulaki’s previous work through their own realties involves prolonged headstands, the repetition of short phrases and in Leda Ward’s case, making a large L figure in green masking tape on the stage.

For the most part the choreographer’s heavy reliance on collaboration with the dancers brings a sense of authenticity and freshness to the movement. The occasional moments of immaturity are a price well paid for the learning process.