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Robert Moses Kin9th May 2004 San Francisco, Kanbar Hall, Jewish Community Center by Renee Renouf |
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Kanbar Hall at The Jewish Community Center demonstrates just how far multi-purpose room technology has evolved. The seats are attached to the risers, they are padded and the aisles are carpeted. Yet this expensive combination can be folded up and stored away for dances, parties and Bar and Bhat Mitzvahs. To my knowledge this is the first dance event at Kanbar Hall, its size a setting conducive to modern dance, if the stage depth looks smaller than ideal. From some earlier lyric works, solo and duets, in this program Robert Moses explores prejudice in three of his works with the aid of his extraordinary dancers. Moses' own movement and his choreographic patterns exude enormous fluidity, many small sudden impulses and gestures, frequently to the face and head, and frequently extraordinary flexibility in the torso. Had Moses been born into Indian culture, he might well have become a master of Indian gesture language,abhinaya. So, when Moses is protesting, one sees fluidity, close encounters amongst the company members, and the gestures become instruments of the agitation and chaos around the action, indicators of violence and chaos. One might not like it, but it's visually mesmerizing. Other Gods, the opening work, is one I need to see again to evaluate. George Pelecis' music, while having a melody line unusual for contemporary compositions, is too repetitive for my full attention. Three protest pieces spoke to Biography (2002) African American discrimination; Tasogare - Japanese-American post WWII discrimination; Cause - the voices of young poets to be premiered in October. Biography used for its text portions of a 1961 KPFA interview with James Baldwin; Lorraine Hainsbury; Langston Hughes; Emile Caponaya; Alfred Kazin. Tasagare, or twilight, was commissioned by Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble, utilizing taiko drums, clarinet and hammer dulcimer. Cause possessed poetry recited by Emiliano Bourgois-Chacon; Luke Brekko-Meisner; Katri Foster; Ise Lyfe; Jason Matero and Tristan Ching with a recorded text by Saul Williams.
All three works feature formation in some guise; whether sustained postures, locations on stage; moving and positioning one dancer by another. Moses paired the motion to fit the subject matter. Since two works will receive full performance later this year, I will reserve my comments.
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