Also this issue:

Star Turn
The NY season is off to a celeb-packed start.That's not always a good thing.
-Toby Zinman

Tune In
This just in: Hairspray's not the only musical on Broadway this season.
-David Anthony Fox

Stones in His Pockets
-Toby Zinman

Philadanco
-Janet Anderson

CafŽ Puttanesca
-Juliet Fletcher

Sex Workers Art Show
-A.D. Amorosi

Waking Dreams
-Kristina Weise

The Trojan Women
-David Anthony Fox

November 21-27, 2002

dance

Kumquat Dance Collective

by Janet Anderson

Four dance troupes performing under the umbrella of Kumquat Dance Collective -- Bald Mermaids, Genghis Dance Company, Rennie Harris Puremovement and Group Motion (the progenitor of this collective and so much in the city) -- presented a seamless evening of nine dance works that segued effortlessly into each other, each distinctive, each part of a whole.

Rennie Harris' "March of the Antmen," with its stealthy, prowling movements making a grid of the studio floor, suggested what? Military maneuvers? A street gang reconnoitering? Didn't matter a bit; you kept your eyes glued to the dancers every minute. Just as compelling in a more poetic way was Bald Mermaids' Rebecca Sloan slithering under, and occasionally over, two strips of gauzy material stretched across the studio. Primordial and elegant at the same time, Sloan called her dance "Don't Ask." Katie McNamara joined Sloan for "Surprise Surprise," a short, delicious burst of jazz sounds and jazzy bodies.

Head guy, founder, director, you-name-it Manfred Fischbeck sent his Group Motion dancers into two dreamscapes, where movement suggested meaning if you wanted it to, but mostly existed for itself. "The Dreamed I" spilled into ordinary life, with people reading newspapers and meeting, greeting and ignoring each other. Later, "The Dreamed II," using Guy Klucevsek's wonderful score with its hints of the hurdy-gurdy, was all about preparation. The performers, one by one, applied white stage makeup, masking part of their faces, then individually took center stage. When everyone was ready to go, the piece ended.

Group Motion dancers, as well as the boss, created work. Emily Hubler seized the opportunity and had Jeff Prall and Jody Rappaport indulging in "Love Games" while a percussive soundtrack suggested heartbeats and two violins played onstage. In "Three Sisters," David Konyk gave a talented trio of dancers -- Megan Bridge, Emily Hubler and Katie McNamara -- some complicated movements teasing the idea of sibling rivalry.

Perhaps the most intriguing work of the evening was Grace Mi-He Lee's "Love Will Keep Us Together," danced with Ron Wood (a.k.a. Zen One.) Lee, of Genghis Dance, juxtaposed the introspection and cerebral nature of her own clean-lined movement vocabulary against partner Wood's juicy, spiritual and instinctive hip-hop-inspired moves. If one worked from the brain and the other from the body, the mix of the two was a complicated bit of dance theater about women and men and so much more. "Love" was a preview, and I can't wait to see the finished work.