For their 38th season, Elisa Monte Dance has established a new partnership with the Flea Theater. Itinerant companies receive in house administrative support and access to further their reach. Elisa Monte made her professional debut dancing with Agnes De Mille. Her career propelled her to become a principal dancer for Martha Graham, Lar Lubovitch, Pilobolus and others. Since 1979 she choreographed more than 50 works.
Tiffany Rea-Fisher was a principal dancer in this company beginning in 2004. Three years ago she was named Artistic Director. Four pieces were presented in this season’s program. Ms. Rea-Fischer choreographed three of them and the other was from the company’s repertoire. The dances are all contemporary and highlight the company’s signature style defined as “daring, intense and passionate” while being “classical and highly athletic.”
JoVanna Parks started the evening in a solo piece excerpted from a 2017 work entitled The Best-Self Project. Accompanied by a recorded conversation, societal issues are examined through words while dance is interrupting the theories. The cycles of menstruation and the moon. The Pope announcing that gay marriage is as big a threat to the world as the destruction of the rain forest. Unless we move to a feminine system of government, we don’t stand a chance. Ms. Parks was expressive and engaging in a piece that seemed to embrace conflict. As we were mentally processing the commentary on our social climate, we were also distracted by abstract dance.
Dreamtime premiered in 1986 and was my favorite dance of the evening. David van Tieghem’s score and Ms. Monte’s choreography celebrate Austrialian Aboriginal rituals. The movement consisted of patterns combining and diverging, yet always with a feeling of harmony and balance with the whole team. I purchased an Aboriginal artist painting on a trip down under in 2017. It is similarly filled with patterns which are a visual representation of the storytelling their people used to convey knowledge of land. When I considered the dance and the art together, the spiritual connectivity enriched the experience for me.
Having its world premiere, And Then They Were was the most vigorously athletic work on display. A couple performed standing 180 degree leg splits. The choreography was impressive for showcasing a talented troupe performing much of this dance en pointe. I did not understand how these movements represented “a reaction to the turbulent nature of the world” but the feats were well executed.
The fourth and final piece was a work-in-progress. H.E.R. will have its premiere in 2020 as part of the Harlem Renaissance Centennial. H.E.R. pays homage to three black, queer writers from the 1920’s. These ladies gave voice to the underrepresented and advocated for suffrage and civil rights. The dance was an ebullient celebration using sounds and styles from that era. Even a little Charleston was thrown into the mix. The period costumes and group dance were energetically staged and a crowd pleaser. As the dance develops, it will be interesting to see how the three inspirational women are brought forth.
This spring 2019 program is my first visit to the Elisa Monte Dance company. I am a theater critic who does not pretend to be expert in dance criticism. From my seat as a fan, I found this company and their production enjoyable and nicely varied. Recommended especially for those who might want to experience an accessible and professional introduction to contemporary dance.