Big Range Festival, Program A, June 2, 2005, Barnevelder Theater

So here I was feeling like death warmed over last night, but I still dragged myself to this performance because I'd already spent the $12 for the ticket, and dammit, I was going to see the show. That put more pressure on the show to deliver, because I really wanted to feel like it was worth the pain! Fortunately, I was not entirely disappointed.

There were seven works in the show, five of them solos. The best of the solos were choreographed by Lisa Gonzales, a Houston native who dances in New York City. Ms. Gonzales performed the things themselves, which included words periodically projected on the white backdrop. The words cajoled the audience to think about themselves and about the dance they were watching. Personally, I have to admire any dance that works in a reference to neutrinos, but I didn't quite get the connection with broken hearts. Ms. Gonzales is a fluid dancer with lovely lines and portrayed her dance with a clear intent. Also enjoyable was her brave brave bull, performed by the intruiging Roberta Cortes. This dance included spoken words, an umbrella, and a chair, props that Ms. Cortes seamlessly integrated into the dance.

The other three solos, which were danced by the choreographers, were less rewarding but still had their moments. Chrissy Leach made some interesting shapes in Light. Salt (Roxanne Claire) included some great gestural sequences, and it was an admirable if less-than-successful exercise in staying on a park bench for the duration of the dance. Lisa Gonzales opened the show with Silt, which used compelling music by John Oswald (performed by Kronos Quartet) but lacked a central idea.

Works performed by FLY Dance Company and FrenetiCore stood out not only because they were the only two group dances in the show but also for their charm. FLY did their usual (but highly entertaining) thing with street dancing in TRIAD: Yellow, Blue, Red. FrenetiCore premiered Rebekah French's The Little Peasant, which included dancing to original music by Two Star Symphony and text by, well, the program doesn't say. The piece alternated between spoken word and music. Much of the dancing was for four men and four women, and while it was quite enjoyable, it shortchanged the development of the characters in the story, among whom was a raven played with twinkling eyes by Eleanor Price. Pancakes play a bigger part in this story than you might expect through Robert Thoth's inventive film projections.