The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 21, Ed. 1 Friday, March 13, 1998 Page: 13 of 24
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THE RICE THRESHER
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FRIDAY. MARCH 13. UHiK
GtOff WINNlNGMAM
Bare chested dancers spread their legs to exhibit their masculinity
sexes
Hemmy So
THRESHER STAFF
OK. so maybe this is part of my
Virgoan nature, but I'm a girl who
likes structure. And. after watching
several dance performances this
year, it's nice to finally see some-
thing that has an underlying compo-
sition which doesn't interfere with
what we amateur critics call fun.
That is precisely what Houston Bal-
let has done with its mixed reper-
tory program this season — it has
created a melange of contemporary
workS which maintains vestiges of
ballet but also ventures on to new
and different territories of dance.
The evening began triumphantly
with Second Before the Gwund, a
piece created by Houston Ballet
Choreographic Associate Trey
Mclntyre. A good mood-setter for
the evening, the piece combined
athletic ability and muscle with the
gracefulness of swans at play. A
flirtatious combination of men and
women dancers eventually coupled
off into three pairs, each of which
performed a stunning and roman-
tic pas de deux. Romance is the key
to this work, which was danced
against a background of simple yet
elegant lighting by Christina
Giannelli and the energetic African
musings of the Kron'os Quartet
(which, incidentally, had performed
the previous evening — the night I
went, Hooked for them, but no luck).
Much of the drive of the piece
seemed to come from the music,
which beat rapidly and playfully,
pushing *he dancers to strong leaps
and carefully choreographed foot-
work. Playing on the African theme,
the male dancers were barefoot and
bare-chested, wearing tan pants and
suspenders (by showing us muscles
they do not hesitate to use), and the
women swirled around the stage in
neutral-colored leotards and skirts,
with only a hint of color to draw the
audience's eyes.
While making a statement on the
nature of love through dance, the
dancers constantly remind you of
theirskill and grace. Intermixed with
normal ballet techniques are hip
swings, coy looks and other sensual
movements. The combination of
dance elements transformed classic
ballet into an engaging contempo-
rary piece.
The second performance of the
program, Musings, offered a very
different perspective on the relation-
ship between the sexes. Performed
to Mozart's Quintet for Clarinet and.
Strings in A Major James Kudelka's
piece stressed elegance over play-
fulness. The four movements were
divided into two opposing dances,
one with three men and one woman,
and the other with the opposite com-
bination.
winter r epertory
program
Houston Ballet
Rating: 1/2 (out of five)
The staging of the quintet is a
visual and auditory treat. The group
sat behind the dancers in the corner
underneath a delicate spotlight.
While the ensemble played thought-
ful work, the dancers intertwined in
a series of movements, exhibiting
the beauty that arises from the sen-
sual balletic combinations of
bodies.
But that was perhaps the weak-
est piece of the night, for it lacked
the energy of Second Before the
Ground and the coolness of the
night's closer, Rooster. Sure, the
piece evoked the beauty and classi-
cal movements of ballet, but the
program's theme seems to want
more modernity than classicism.
Rooster was the fast and furious
dance of the night. Set to eight songs
by the Rolling Stones, the work
brought 10 dancers into a wild battle
of the sexes.
1 may be a bit biased in my cri-
tique of the piece, considering that
this was my sixth time to see it, but
perhaps that in itself should say
something about this Christopher
Bruce work. I missed the original
Mark Arvin and his successor, Karl
Vakili. in the role of the lead Rooster
(pretentious mack-daddy), but
Carlos Acosta is hardly a bad substi-
tute. With head cocked and attitude
in gear, he led the other four men in
their struggle to be the badasses
they so desperately want to be. And
they do succeed, even though they
are tormented by three lascivious
woYrien in "Paint it Black" and out-
witted by a cute girl with a deadly
red feather boa in "Play with Fire."
The fem&le roles were also in
triguing and fun to watch, especially
Susan Cummins' "Ruby Tuesday," a
blonde Lisa Kudrow-type whose free-
wheeling nature makes her solo a
breeze through the open atmo-
sphere of the liberal '60s. Cummins-
is further highlighted by a change of
costume, from a black and red Mary
Quant dress to a long, flowing red
gown which blows in the wind like
the imaginary flowers she gathers.
The finale, set to "Sympathy for
the Devil,"energetically reprised the
entire dance, and in the end, as the
characters froze into (he grooves
they've carved out for themselves,
the head Rooster took the audience
aback with his final statement, a
cocky head jut that summarized the
dance's general attitude.
Performing works against the
usual grain of classical ballet. Hous-
ton Ballet proved that its repertory
need not consist of Swan Like and
the Nutcracker. With thisfnixed rep-
ertory performance, it showed that
its horizons are broader than you
expect.
Sugar Ray sours an otherwise sweet show
SPAM, from Page KS
from Metallica, Bon Jovi and even
flash-in-the-pan Brit wonders
Chumbawumba with tongue firmly
in cheek, lioldfinger performed
"I ubthu m pi ng" wit h til e.h ear te n i 11 g
political message of "Fuck Nike!"
They even found a clever and cre-
ative way to get around the inevi-
table (and, by now, tedious) perfor-
mance of their one big hit, "Here in
Your Bedroom."They had someone
else sing it. A undershirted ado-
lescent with the bravado to make it
over the crowd barrier and past beefy
security guards was pulled up on
stage by lead singer John Feldmann.
Feldmann allowed the kid to belt
#th e tuwfc. often unasmlf't), while
the rest of the band entertained it-
self in various humorous and sexu-
ally suggestive ways. Goldfinger, a
group devoted lo oh-stage mayhem
and some strange phallic fixation,
provided the brightest performance
of the night.
To those who^paid their $17.50
plus service charges for the express
purpose,of enjoying the live sonic
masterwork of Sugar Ray, 1 am truly
sorry. You've heard their infectiously
catchy tune "Fly" on the radio ad
infinitum, and I suspect, at some
point, you even sang along.
Sugar Ray has revealed its true,
hideous form, and it is that of a bad
metal,band. Their anger is fake and
their music just sucks. After 40 min-
utes of the same tired, thundering
chord repetitions, you will be gripped
by the urge to strangle the loved one
at your side.
"DJ*Homicide" operated the turn
tables for Sugar Ray, probably to
give the band some semblance of
Strm credibility, but added tittup-
musically and stylistically beyond
scratches and irrelevant loops. Lead
singer Mark McGrath hopped fro hi
speaker to speaker in hopes of excit
ing the crowd with more hideous
glam posturing. I was briefly awak-
ened from my nightmare when
Sugar Ray tossed up an impromptu
rendition of "Ice Ice Baby." which,
combined with Mark McGrath's
appearance, only furthers my suspi-
cions' that Vanilla has found a new
and equally crappy musical form.
Maybe 1 am a harsh critic^but
even the audience that earlier
moshed to a song about Spam was
frozen to the floor by the middle of
Sugar Ray's set." Perhaps I'm not
going out on a journalistic limb by
proclaiming the utter uselessness
of Sugar Ray But if I can reach just
one kid out there on the street some-
where, FH know I've done my job;
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Hardi, Joel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 21, Ed. 1 Friday, March 13, 1998, newspaper, March 13, 1998; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246617/m1/13/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.