Dancetheatre David Earle Brims with Beauty, Power

Guelph Mercury
September 20, 2002
By Harry Currie
Guelph

Mike Moore & Grace Miyagawa in Night Summer 

 Photo: John Lauener

It was an evening of beauty, of contemplation, of anguish, of power and peace, and it came from two of the brightest gems in our artistic community.

The combination of Dancetheatre David Earle and the Penderecki String Quartet at Guelph 's River Run Centre on Thursday was nothing short of magical, and the response from the most appreciative audience was thundering in its praise.

Based on four works choreographed by Earle, one comes away with impressions rather than exactitude, a feeling that there has been a profound experience shared with those privileged to have attended, and one that has left an indelible mark on one's spirit which will resurface in contemplation for a very long time.

Unlike ballet with its strict adherence to structural formality, modern dance has a freedom of expression limited only by the imagination of the choreographer and the limitations of the human body, and in Dancetheatre David Earle both are pushed to the limit.

Coupled with the Penderecki String Quartet, there was a symbiosis which bordered on the metaphysical, transcending the here and now and transporting the audience to another plane of existence.

Tango for string Quartet began with the dancers seated and listening to the music, the quartet placed up-stage left. The music ranged from the sensuous, familiar tango, rising to frenzy and then wilting back to the tango, the dancers responding, rising to join with the music as it entered them, being at one with the moods, moving in patterns with frantic jumps and sensuous lifts, returning to their onstage seats at the end of each section and as the music wound gently to an end.

In Spite Of and Because was a love story, danced by Suzette Sherman and Michael English, portraying the stages of love's progression through the years: eroticism, joy, intensity, tolerance, intolerance, stress, agitation, familiarity, acceptance. This was a beautiful piece, the two bodies intertwined, pulling apart, losing each other, with incredible backward falls, ending with wistful glances at the years which had gone before.

Night/Summer was on a beach, the dancers performing incredible patterns and movements, a beautiful woman approaches, and the swimmer dives into the water, not to return.

The two central pieces had been performed with recorded music, but for the final selection the Penderecki Quartet returned with countertenor Richard Cunningham and soprano Kimberly Enns to present the evening's masterpiece.

Maelstrom, a six-section piece set amid the horrors of war, is a surrealistic impression of what we lose in conflict, conveying confusion, heightened but temporary love, death, loss, futility. The range of movement and visual impact was riveting, the solo voices and string enhancing, supporting and inspiring the patterns of tragedy and desolation.

The Penderecki Quartet played with an uncanny precision and superb musicianship, the balance of dynamics, expression and technique so finely tuned that one senses the unspoken bond which links them through their performance. The players are Jeremy Bell and Jerzy Kaplanek , violins, Christine Vlajk , viola, and Paul Pulford , cello.

Performed essentially on a bare stage, the wondrous lighting design by Alex Kordics created walls, paths, battlefields, dance halls and beaches, a perfect example of the magic of illusion.

The evening began with the presentation to David Earle of the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts, and it ended with the tumultuous audience response which Earle so richly deserves for his years of dedication to modern dance.