May 12, 2005
Field Notes: Dean Moss and Laylah Ali
A week ago I attended the premiere performance of Figures on a Field, choreographer Dean Moss’s adaptation of Laylah Ali’s paintings, at The Kitchen. In January I had the pleasure of attending a preview of the piece, and at the time I wrote: “He's animating Ali's works to great effect, occasionally freeze-framing the movement to offer the audience tableaux vivants that maintain fidelity to her compositions as well as to the sense of malevolence and pain that pervades the paintings.” The excerpt I saw then was about one-third of the total performance, which keeps the intensity switched on from start to finish, despite occasional slow patches meant (I think) to temper the charged atmosphere. The seven dancers—Kacie Chang, Keila Cordova, Pedro Jimenez, Wanjiru Kamuyu, Okwui Okopokwasili, David Thompson, all of whose previous work is unknown to me, plus Moss himself—make much of the fragmented, halting narratives; they change roles (and, by association, their relationships with each other) seamlessly. I lack the critical vocabulary necessary to speak with any authority about dance, so I’ll simply say that the evening encouraged me to seek out other contemporary dance performances, which is the highest compliment a neophyte can offer.
There are three performances left, at 8pm tonight, Friday, and Saturday.