Dance Showcase Puts BU Dance Faculty In the Spotlight

The annual BU dance faculty showcase took place in the dance theater off Buick Street this past Friday and Saturday. The show included pieces choreographed by BU dance director Micki Taylor-Pinney, faculty members Ann Brown Allen, Margot Parsons, DeAnna Pellecchia and Ingrid Schatz, and guest choreographer Jeffrey Cirio, a Boston Ballet second soloist. Contemporary or contemporary ballet were the genres of choice for all but one of the nine works, but the show commanded attention with only one major hiccup (there were live musicians involved, one with a squeaky saxophone and the other with a strange table instrument making absolutely hellish noises to no apparent rhythm).

Members of Boston Ballet II, the second company of the Boston Ballet, danced as guest artists in an original work by Cirio, as well as in an excerpt from “The Waltz Project,” a piece choreographed in 1988 by Peter Martins, New York City Ballet’s ballet master in chief. As expected, the aspiring ballerinas/danseurs were impressive.

Margot Parsons, who teaches ballet and pointe at BU, also helms Dance Visions, a locally based contemporary ballet company. She premiered two new works at the showcase, including a hauntingly beautiful duet, called “Stirrings.” The technically demanding piece was performed by BU senior Christine McDowell and 2009 graduate Nicole DeVicci, who both dance regularly for Parsons’ company.

Pellecchia and Schatz, who teach jazz and modern, respectively, at BU and co-founded Kairos Dance Theater together, are a frighteningly powerful force onstage. Of all the pieces in the show, the two duets they performed, pulled from a work in progress called “That Girl and The Other One,”  were the ones that lingered after the curtain closed. The duo is athletic and daring, mercilessly throwing themselves against the back wall of the stage, headfirst into the floor, and onto each other. “That Girl and The Other One” explores the violent, competitive, and ambiguous relationship between adolescent girls and the experience of growing up as a female in modern society. Using handheld lights to illuminate each other and cast massive shadows of their bodies against the back wall, the excerpts were fierce and compelling. BU is fortunate to have such exciting artists on the payroll.

The showcase also featured a krump piece by three male dancers who participated in BU’s dance outreach program Reach this past summer as teen apprentices. The trio delivered a dynamic performance, exhibiting fascinating muscle control and getting the audience laughing on several occasions. It was a fun break from the uninterrupted string of contemporary pieces and a chance to see the aspiring artists that Reach supports.

The many independent student dance groups on campus seem to often obscure BU’s dance department (which advises the student dancers in Dance Theatre Group and also offers a dance minor). The focus is definitely on contemporary dance, but there are some superb, creative professional dancers on staff who shouldn’t go unrecognized.