Dance Review: Elisa Monte Dance Company

by Mark-Brian Sonna of MBS Productions

Elisa Monte Dance may not be familiar to many outside of the world of Dance. They haven’t received the fame and notoriety of Pilobolus, Paul Taylor, Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, to name a few of the world renowned companies. Founded in 1981 by Elisa Monte, their choreography has been performed around the world. Ms. Monte is the principal choreographer and the evening’s performance at the Latino Cultural Center showcased her work with the exception of one piece in which she collaborated with her co-founder David Brown.

Elisa Monte Dance and Alvin Ailey are linked in many ways. The program notes mention how her most known work, Pigs & Fishes, was originally commissioned by Mr. Ailey. The link is evident. Both companies have very athletic styles. The emphasis is on rhythmical swinging movements at mid-level. In other words, there isn’t as much aerial work, or ground work, and the choreography seldom stands still to create visual pictures. Like Alvin Ailey’s company, Ms. Monte’s dancers are required to create forceful, dynamic, and bold gestures. Subtle it is not. In one evening she presented highlights of over a quarter of century worth of work. Once could see in the five pieces an evolution in her artistry. It is evident that her later work is much stronger.

Pigs and Fishes which kicked off the evening was ebullient, and visually fun. The program notes, which were a bit cloying for it attempted to spoon feed the meaning of her abstract work, described this dance as a “powerful, driving piece focusing on the coming together of forces in a communal triumph over society and culture.” I couldn’t disagree any more. This piece is far from serious, it is a purely abstract piece of movement with creative uses of the torso bending at the waist. The focus of the piece was creating a visual rhythm. Like a movement from a symphony it gave us a melody line and then it explored variations, resolving itself in the end with satisfaction. Any deeper or transcendental meanings as elaborated in the program escaped me. I’m not being negative about this dance. It is wonderful. I can see clearly why Mr. Ailey incorporated into his repertoire. It’s not as weighty a piece as the program would make you think and that is OK, not everything that is good has to be serious.

Run to the Rock, which is the piece she collaborated with Mr. Brown, was not particularly memorable. Her program comments that it “has been universally applauded when performed” is not a lie. When the piece ended the audience did applaud, but it was a courteous applause, not the glowing reception she would have us think. The problem with Run to the Rock is that it’s set to Nina Simone’s famous interpretation of the song "Sinnerman." The song musically builds with it’s cacophony of rhythms. The dance did not. The song builds in emotional intensity. The dance begins on a high and stays there, it fails to build. Hours later most of the dance has vanished from my memory.

My first comment after Slope of Enlightenment to my companion after it ended was “that was my relationship with my partner.” The program would have you believe it’s some sort of “transformation of one’s self…” blah blah blah! The piece, though weakly costumed, was sexy, dynamic, troubled, loving, brooding, joyous, within a space of minutes. The pas de deux of Joseph Celej, a stupendous dancer, and Matthew Fisher, that anchors the dance was stunning in its virility, masculinity, and sensuality. Two men dancing that way can frequently come across as overtly homoerotic. Ms. Monte is able to make it extremely sensual without it being overtly sexual. The relationship between the two men and the other dancers that weave in and out and affect their life is universal. Any couple can relate to the influence and pressures from the outside world onto a relationship, which through elegance this piece displayed. Curiously, this was the one piece that wasn’t as continuously dynamic with its movement. She took moments to paint pictures on stage. This piece demonstrates the power of Ms. Monte’s choreography and why she is considered a great artist. I must also add that there is masculinity to all of her work. Her choreography favors the male physique

After intermission we had another so-so piece by the name of Anima set to tango music. I’ve seen Tango music used in modern dance before to much greater effect. No new revelations. I’ll just say it was “nice”. It felt like the work of a young choreographer, which it was since it came out of her early period.

Shattered closed the evening. It was the only piece that I agreed with the program’s description. It so happened that the description was provided by a critic. According to Dance Insider this piece is “So potent you almost sense the ashy aftertaste of a thunderbolt.” I couldn’t agree any more. Like Slope of Enlightenment, a full range of emotions and situations are explored. Though it had less visual “moments” than Slope, it too paused to let the audience catch its breath and enjoy in the compositions. It was also instantly relatable. My comment to my attending partner was “I’ve had weeks like that,” and she responded back “oh, I know, me too!” Like all great dance, this piece can communicate volumes by it’s shear movement.

Ms. Monte is a very good choreographer with the ability to create pieces of genius. As a dance company she has a problem preventing her from reaching the ranks of world class: The dancers, well trained and expressive as they may be, were sloppy. There is nothing more exciting than seeing moments of chaos turn into moments of perfect unison. The choreography frequently required the eight dancers to careen all over the stage in varying ways and suddenly jump into the air simultaneously. To make this work the timing has to be perfect. When it happens it is exciting, it’ll make the audience want to jump out of its seat. If the timing is off, you get the idea of what was supposed to happen, but are denied the pleasure of seeing it. Lines were frequently askew; gestures would be slightly off by 1/8th of a beat. In dance there is the term “cleaning up” which means working the minutiae so that everyone is “together”. A miss every now and then is forgivable, after all it’s human bodies in motion on the stage and humans aren’t infallible, but every dance suffered from this problem repeatedly. A more vigilant eye or a stronger dance captain is needed.

Lastly, I must slam the Latino Cultural Center for how they handled the evening. The production started late by 10 minutes. That I can forgive. But seating people in the middle of a dance after curtain went up is unforgivable. The proper way to handle it is to wait for the pauses between each dance to seat the patrons. I’m not talking about one or two patrons being seated late. I quit counting after the 20th patron. The show was supposed to start at 7:30 p.m. The last arrivals came in at 8:15!

There was a second problem that aggravated the situation even more. In Modern Dance, because the dancers have to change costume and the stage must be reset for every piece there is traditionally a pause between each dance. This pause lasts anywhere from a minute to five minutes. Some theatres keep the audiences sitting in darkness; others bring up the lights slightly. The Latino Cultural Center brought up the lights fully giving the impression that intermission had arrived. Quite a few patrons stood up to stretch their legs and go to the lobby. Obviously, when the next dance started they began to rush back to their seats. One would think that after this first oops the theatre would realize it best not to bring up the audience lights as much, if at all. But between the late seating and letting the audience meander back to their seats, the message was sent: you could come and go as you pleased; and people did. People would get up in the middle of the performance and go take a break in the lobby and come back. The theatre isn’t that big, it seats 300 and about 250 were attendance. Dozens of people did this. This went on the entire evening making it one of the most annoying experiences I’ve ever had in a theatre and most difficult to enjoy the performance. Being a critic I didn’t have to purchase my tickets, but had I been a paying patron I would have been furious.

A theatre must set some guidelines and expectations for their audiences and they usually obey. The Latino Cultural Center, known for being impractical with the performing troupes as to when they can enter or leave the building and how late rehearsals can go, lets the audience run rough shod. The net effect is that they sanctioned the audience’s rudeness to the performers and those of us trying to watch and enjoy the show. I know I will think twice before ever going to that theatre again. Yes, that is how bad it was.

The show ran on March 1.