Dirty Pretty Things

strike a pose: Desmond Richardson, here with Miho Morinoue, is regarded as much for his stage presence as his dancing.
Photo By: James Houston

Desmond Richardson and Complexions dance with true grit.

by Deni Kasrel

Desmond Richardson is a man in demand. With a resume that includes stints with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ballet Frankfurt, he's also been tapped to perform for television, film, video and theater. His lyrical talents, combined with stellar technique and an exquisite physique, led choreographer Lar Lubovitch to call him "poetry in movement." On top of all that, Richardson works hand-in-hand with choreographer and life partner Dwight Rhoden as co-director of Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Since the pair founded Complexions in 1994, the company has toured the world receiving acclaim for presenting bold, visceral contemporary dance. The troupe comes to the Annenberg Center this week with a program that includes Pretty Gritty Suite, done to tunes by Nina Simone, as well as the fiery Red, an excerpt from the full-length ballet Anthem that brought the audience its feet when performed at Complexions' last visit to Annenberg in 2003.

City Paper: You're incredibly versatile: Complexions, dance videos and musical theater, for which you even sing. Do you need to approach each genre differently, or is it more that dance is dance regardless of the idiom?
Desmond Richardson: I have to approach each dance idiom for what it is. I bring that file forward. When I work in musical theater, I work in that head, but not forgetting my classical, because it brings it up a notch. In terms of working for Michael Jackson, Prince or Madonna, that's a whole other head. It's Los Angeles — that whole let-go-and-be-free and not be so erect. I love that part. It actually feels different and it's very challenging. As a Sagittarian, I need to always be filled that way. I like difference and I like change.

CP: Speaking of challenging, Dwight's work seems tough to pull off. Is it as hard as it looks?
DR : The beauty of Dwight's choreography is that he likes to show the effort. He doesn't like for us to cover things up. Because we're trained to cover things up and he's the antithesis of that. He likes to see the effort. Let's see how you got there. Because it's more accessible to the audience. But there are times when he goes, "Let's not show so much of that. Show more form and sculpture." Because he loves math and he loves shapes.

CP: Does he ever ask you to do something that makes you think, "What? Are you kidding?"
DR: Not for me. I'm like, how high? I will go to the ends. I often feel that the dance is just as important as the artist. We're the instruments for the choreographer to speak, so we have to be open.

CP: You've gotten lots of compliments on your technique and your execution. But to me the big attraction is that you have tremendous stage presence. Is that something that you can work at or is it something that's just natural?
DR: I believe that having presence onstage is something that you can acquire, something that you can work at, but it's also something that's inside. I've had all these great artists — Carmen De Lavallade, Alvin Ailey, William Forsythe — to help me get to that place and open up and be honest and just tell a story. You have to be an actor, you've got to use your face, everything. é You can't forget that it's a visual art form. You create the magic. I love it once the curtain goes up and the lights go on and you have a story to tell and you fill up this space with your humanity and your heart. People get that. Now, it's not a place for psychology. This is not a psych ward. But it's a place where you can get things out. As an artist you have to find that balance. Are you going to give everything, or are you going to give just a little bit? I am of the thought that you give everything. Those people who go to the edge reach people.

CP: Complexions is noted for having a cast composed of many ethnicities. That may come across as a gimmick. Does the makeup of the company have an effect on the dance itself?
DR: We don't just see it by the ethnicities. We see it by the dance idioms: ballet, modern, jazz, all those things coming together. It's not like we're only going to hire one white person, two blacks here and one Asian there. We don't concentrate on that. It's just a mixture of things and what we can all bring to the table. Everybody has a different way of moving. It's the individuality of the person, no matter what color they are — that's where the complexions part comes in.

CP: Can you talk a little about Pretty Gritty Suite? The music is by Nina Simone — why did you pick her songs for a full dance suite?
DR: One of the reasons is that being in Alvin Ailey we had an opportunity to meet her, to go to her home é and we thought it would be really cool to use Nina's music. It's so brilliant. Her range, the way she made those gritty sounds, some things were so ethereal and there's also her prowess on the piano. And that's what Pretty Gritty Suite is about, it's indicative of her music. There's no story line or anything. The selections of music that we've chosen, there's a bit of a story there, but it's only through the words. It's just a suite of her music and the dance. It goes from the pretty stuff to the gritty stuff into a little bit of house music, because later on in her career, she started doing these house mixes and we were like, "That would be cool, let's stick that in there."

Complexions, Thu., April 21, 7:30 p.m.; Fri., April 22, 8 p.m.; Sat., April 23, 2 and 8 p.m., $32-$44, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut St., 215-898-3900.