LehrerDance/Dmitri Peskov and Dancers

LehrerDance/Dmitri Peskov and Dancers

Athenaeum Theatre, Chicago, IL

November 7, 2007

Reviewed by Lynn Shapiro

The Chicago premiere of LehrerDance took the house not so much by storm as by quantum physics. As part of the month-long Dance Chicago festival, Jon Lehrer’s strikingly original choreography transformed the stage into an energy field of super-charged particles.

Rich movement invention coupled with high-risk partnering were signatures of Lehrer’s choreography throughout the four pieces. He seamlessly integrated his dancers’ gymnastic skills with modern dance forms. Surprise landings and tableaux that sliced space into unexpected geometrics kept the audience on the edge of their seats.

    Iambus showcases the sunny “I love to dance” exuberance of all seven athletic members of Lehrer’s newly formed company. Set to taped music of Bobby McFerrin and Yo Yo Ma, the piece is rooted in the contrast between flow and sculpted multi-body constructions. The dancers happily invade each other’s space to connect, break apart, and recombine with daring speed and high-flying abandon. Their swift transfers of energy create both riveting visual design and breathtaking physical excitement.

    Loose Canon exercises a deliciously restrained sense of caprice. Lehrer’s humor capitalizes on Ted Kryzkowski’s acrobatic ability as the unassuming victim of his fellow dancers’ manipulation. Contrasting Palchelbel’s bucolic Canon in D major, voice commands such as, “Stop! Rewind!” and “Use humor to get your point across!” add to the irony and surprise of the choreography. Wild near misses and unconventional couplings of women lifting men brought a change of pace the audience welcomed with raucous laughter and applause.

    Lehrer’s affinity for air-born antics doesn’t keep him from making stunning use of the floor and stationary movement in the duet Instinct. Dancers Matthew Farmer and Immanuel Naylor assault the ground, their ritualistic gestures less giving into gravity than diving into it. Animal energy seethes as the two predatory beings move from mutual dependence through the pain of emerging independence, to the breach that finally separates them. The power and dramatic tension of their bodies connecting and separating casts the space between them as a third partner.

    In the final piece, the premiere of A Ritual Dynamic, the dancers snap into action like rubber bands pulled to the max, launching their bodies into flight, aimed seemingly at thin air. Then, miraculously, another body materializes from the ether of moving space, and zot! They hit their human targets mid-flight, cradle in each other’s arrested motion for one luxurious moment, and move on.

    Dmitri Peskov and Dancers played theatrical counterpoint to Lehrer’s buoyant style with four mood pieces that wrenched gesture from dramatized sentiment. The choreography, superficial in much of the ensemble material, was at its best in Interrogation, a compelling solo showcasing Peskov’s impressive range as both dancer and actor. The piece blends performer, movement, and music to convey the prisoner’s physical and psychological ordeal with emotional depth. We could experience the impact of Peskov’s message without his footnote about his grandparents’ imprisonment and torture in Stalin’s labor camps, but the sting of its personal connection to the artist, and to many Russian immigrants in the audience, added a special poignancy to the evening.