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L.A. Contemporary Dance Company Moves As One

Christina Campodonico |
November 18, 2014 | 6:32 p.m. PST

Contributor

Ryan Ruiz (left) and Ray Ejiofor (right) with the L.A. Contemporary Dance Company ensemble of "Into the Fray" (Photo by Taso Papadakis)
Ryan Ruiz (left) and Ray Ejiofor (right) with the L.A. Contemporary Dance Company ensemble of "Into the Fray" (Photo by Taso Papadakis)

Choral music is known for high and soaring vocals that blend seamlessly to sustain long, pure tones. The effect is created by alternate breathing. Only sip a breath, if you know that the person next to you is currently singing the note in question. As one person runs out of breath and fades her tone, the person next to her picks it up, closing the silent gap that might otherwise become audible. And so, out of many voices, comes one sustained note. 

Such is the effect of “Into the Fray,” a new and ambitious work, which L.A. Contemporary Dance Company premiered at the Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC) last weekend. 

And I say “ambitious” because of the creative risk LACDC takes in bringing four different choreographers together to choreograph a single work. 

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Created by incoming LACDC Artistic Director Genevieve Carson, choreographer Erik Speth, Kevin Williamson and LACDC co-founder and USC alum Kate Hutter, with contributions by LACDC dancers, “Into the Fray” combines their creative forces into a single, sixty-five minute work. In her program notes, Hutter explains that the piece “began as an experiment in collaboration.” Working cumulatively, each choreographer worked with a small group of dancers individually and next teamed up with a choreographic partner. Each pair then traded partners and finally all four choreographers worked together as a team with LACDC’s full ensemble of seventeen.

The result of this experimentation is truly a journey.

L.A. Contemporary Dance Company ensemble in "Into the Fray" (Photo by Taso Papadakis)
L.A. Contemporary Dance Company ensemble in "Into the Fray" (Photo by Taso Papadakis)

From electronically-infused crashing waves, (deftly engineered by composer-musician team, Eric Mason and Garrett McClean), to songs that sound almost like pop anthems, the movement and music of “Into the Fray” is transformative, taking the imagination from an abandoned shore, to an obscure nightclub, to countless other worlds.

In one part, the ensemble of dancers is scattered on the floor, like Raggedy Ann dolls washed up on the beach.  In another, we’re in a dive bar, as three men riff on Beyoncé’s “Put a Ring on It” dancing triad in slow motion, swinging their hips seductively, side-to-side.  Finally, we end at a tranquil sand and rock garden. This image is conjured up by seeing sixteen dancing couples, who sit cross-legged and stare into each other’s eyes, then move gradually through yogic gestures and take deliberate, hardy breaths.  

READ MORE: Interview With The Australian Ballet's Kevin Jackson

Zen to frenetic, placid to playful—the worlds created and encountered by L.A. Contemporary Dance’s performance are disparate. Yet the transitions between them are surprisingly seamless, as Carson, Speth, Williamson and Hutter create an interlocking choreography that shifts through moods and phases (enhanced skillfully by Tony Shayne’s lighting design) rather than distinct choreographic movements.  

The beginning of the piece is itself a frayed edge between real life and performance as dancer Kim Thompson slips onto the uncovered stage while the air is still thick with the audience’s pre-show chatter. This innocuous and unassuming beginning gives way to the company’s raw and potent energy. At times, this energy cannot even be contained by the soloists as they attempt to pummel through the movement through either sheer will or force, heedless of physical finesse. But LACDC shows its real strength in highly choral moments of group work. 

L.A. Contemporary Dance Company ensemble members in "Into the Fray" (Photo by Taso Papadakis)
L.A. Contemporary Dance Company ensemble members in "Into the Fray" (Photo by Taso Papadakis)

A cohort of dancers assembles on top of and around a gray, rectangular table, like a school choir staggered onto bleachers by height and vocal type. But they are more like boisterous cheerleaders than angelic singers as they count loudly through sixty, again and again. As if a swarm, they then converge into a diagonal line that resembles an undulating caterpillar, as they contract their bellies and curve their spines.  Their bent elbows, rest in the palms of their fellow dancers’ hands, creating a sea of segmented limbs, just like a millipede’s innumerable parts.  This overspill of human anatomy is dizzying and delightful all at once.

Just as it is impossible to tell where one body begins and another ends, it is impossible to know where one choreographer’s signature is apparent or muted within “Into the Fray.”  Such anonymity, however, speaks to the successful collaboration between LACDC’s ensemble and its choreographers. For all involved know how to move and communicate as one. 

"Into the Fray" ran from Nov. 14 to Nov. 15 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC) in Downtown Los Angeles (514 South Spring St., Los Angeles). For more information about upcoming shows visit LAContemporaryDance.org

Contact Contributor Christina Campodonico here.

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