Dance Review
Bodytraffic
World Music/CRASHarts at Institute of Contemporary Art
Friday night
When the spectacular dancers of Bodytraffic burst into the Institute of Contemporary Art Friday night to begin a series of three World Music/CRASHarts performances, they offered a promising program of four Boston area premieres by talented contemporary choreographers. Unfortunately, the creative depth of the choreography didn’t always match the skills of the dancers, with the program tending toward a forced cuteness that grated by the end of the night. However, there were some redeeming highlights that made for a welcome return by the 10-year-old Los Angeles-based company.
The opening work, excerpts from “The New 45’’ by Richard Siegal, was a delicious pick-me-up for a dreary cold night. Set to jazz classics by Oscar Peterson, Benny Goodman, and Clark Terry, as well as a novelty by Harry Belafonte, the work was given a brilliant performance by Tina Finkelman Berkett (Bodytraffic’s cofounder and artistic director, along with Lillian Rose Barbeito) and Guzmán Rosado. Their playful partnering featured near-miss connections, cheeky manipulations, and tight ensemble passages full of brilliant, quicksilver footwork and quirky isolations. Bursts of energy often sent one or the other catapulting through the air, spinning like a top, or collapsing to the floor, recovering with jazzy skitters through space, hips rolling with saucy flair.
The other two lighthearted works — Anton Lachky’s “Private Games: Chapter One’’ and Joshua L. Peugh’s “A Trick of the Light’’ — fared less effectively. Ensemble works for five and six dancers, respectively, they shared a similar penchant for silliness and schtick and suffered by being programmed together. Both were a bit choppy and messy, featuring a great deal of forced humor, miming, awkward partnering, face front addressing of the audience. But each also showcased the dancers as vivid personalities with excellent comic timing, and they were given high-energy moves at breakneck speed that highlighted how extraordinarily articulate they are to a person. Their names bear noting — in addition to Berkett and Rosado, the evening included performances by Matthew Rich (a lithe, spidery firecracker), the muscularly acrobatic Joseph Kudra, James Gregg, and two dynamic female dancers, Lindsey Matheis and Alexis “Tilly’’ Evans-Krueger.
Victor Quijada’s “Once again, before you go,’’ was the evening’s only real abstract work, and it was a gorgeous unspooling of pure movement that was riveting to watch. Quijada, founder of Rubberbandance Group, is known for infusing the hip-hop aesthetic he grew up on with a vibrant contemporary vision, and this 2014 work, set to an alluring atmospheric score by Jasper Gahunia, melded moves drawing from street dance and capoeira with luxurious fluidity and transfers of weight. As the five dancers connected and disconnected, flips and balances dropped into rolls and spins that coiled and uncoiled with tensile muscularity, limbs tumbling end over end in graceful waves. Only the ending was abrupt, leaving us gasping in the dark for more.
Dance Review
Bodytraffic
World Music/CRASHarts at Institute of Contemporary Art
Friday night
Karen Campbell can be reached at karencampbell4@rcn.com.
