The Boston Herald
May 31, 2003
The Boston Herald
May 31, 2003
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DANCE
REVIEW; Rice ballets boil over with virtuosity in Cambridge
Abstract
Like
Jose Mateo and Margot Parsons, two of this area's most important makers
of contemporary ballets, Rice has kept her nose to the grindstone and
worked painstakingly to say something original within classical ballet
technique. She choreographs primarily on younger dancers, and she's less
interested in pointe work than Parsons or Mateo. Her style is quite informed
by her extensive training in Jose Limon's technique.
Rebecca Rice Dance at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, last night. Final performance tonight. Every so often, one encounters contemporary ballets with evident structure, danced with exacting intent. The program offered by Rebecca Rice Dance last night at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center was a revelation, intriguing and sophisticated from start to finish, and proof that Rice is one of this area's most imaginative and downright solid choreographers. Rice has been presenting work in Boston since 1988, in modest venues, and she's taught modern technique and choreography at the Boston Ballet School since 1992. The six ballets shown last night, created during the past three years, mark an important turning point in her artistic career. The events in each are organized with heightened clarity, and it's easy to observe a coherent style running through all of this work. The costuming is always understated and classy. Like Jose Mateo and Margot Parsons, two of this area's most important makers of contemporary ballets, Rice has kept her nose to the grindstone and worked painstakingly to say something original within classical ballet technique. She choreographs primarily on younger dancers, and she's less interested in pointe work than Parsons or Mateo. Her style is quite informed by her extensive training in Jose Limon's technique. "Paradigm," set to Bach's "Concerto for Two Pianos and Strings in C Major," was a successful opener, and it was also the most symmetrical work of the evening. The dance begins with combinations of two or three dancers in traveling phrases or floor work, followed by a dramatic, dense ensemble passage. An excerpt of Bach's long, sustained notes on the violins, for example, was illustrated with just a simple sweep of the arm. The mood shifted drastically with "Array," a sensual quartet set to a mesmerizing taped score by Martin Case, Anugama and Sebastiano. This was a perfect example of Rice's ability to carefully arrange episodes within her dances. A solo was slowly transformed into a quartet, the entire group moved through a unison section, and then the dancers broke off into sequences of partnering. Logically, the piece ended with another solo played against the ensemble. "Deep Horizon" was a sweeping work that showcased the considerable talents of Darrius Grey and Arian George. Set to Peter Shickele's "Sextet," the dance centers on a mysterious social hierarchy that ends with a kind of battlefield strewn with women. Grey and George, looking perplexed, are the only ones who remain standing. I can't think of the last time a dancer brought so much meaning to a simple backbend, but that's what happened in the luxurious solo "Indigo," performed by the accomplished Sara Knight in a kind of primitive, fringed evening gown by Martin Cooper. Cooper also provided the brilliant archetypal costumes and photographic projections for the program's finale, "The Altis Ballet," a psychological rumination on feminine athleticism. This
is Rice at her most spare and enigmatic, with two- dimensional poses providing
the punctuation for each extraordinary phrase.
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