erforming Dance Company’s Spring Concert opened and closed with two pieces that showcased innovative, energetic choreography and impressive performances by the dancers. These two pieces provided the glittering frame for a program that was overall a lackluster landscape of low-energy movement sequences that didn’t appear to particularly inspire the dancers, based on the minimal effort they expended in their execution and artistry.

The program opened with the premiere of guest choreographer Ronald K. Brown’s “Come ‘Ye:” “a call for a new kind of army: soldiers dedicated to prayer.” Brown’s choreography combines and contrasts dynamic solos full of fear and anger with tender ensemble moments of the dancers holding hands and cradling one another. The choreography, which brings together the dance vocabulary of many different nations, is particularly poignant during this time of war, when greed, violence and hypocrisy are ripping the world apart.

The 10 dancers in “Come ‘Ye” worked well together, but special notice must be given to Jersey Rio Riemo for his vitality and sensuality every second he was on stage, qualities that irresistibly drew the eye.

Second on the program was “Stone, Metal, Water,” choreographed by Donna White, the chairwoman of the modern dance department and inspired by her trip to Beijing last summer. The title invokes images of a cool concept in the lighting and costume design, so I was pleasantly surprised by the fire of the piece, apparent in the deep gorgeous red of the costumes by Steve Rasmussen and the lighting design by John Duffy.

The well-chosen trio of Erin Lehua Brown, Rosy Goodman and Noel Wetzel danced well together in choreography that made interesting use of the hands and wrists, with the dancers slowly flexing and extending the ends of their appendages and pressing their palms to the ground. White’s choreography and the dancers’ execution of it had a lovely, sustained quality, but after a while I began to wish for an increase in the tempo, energy and intensity of the movement, for variety and to match the changing mood of the music. The attack I was looking for finally came at the end of the piece when the dancers shredded a long strip of construction paper stretched across the front of the stage with their feet. This ending was a surprise and was visually agitating and unsettling, but in terms of effectiveness it seemed like too little, too late.

The first half of the program concluded with the premiere of Meghan Cooley’s “Missing Bodies and Lost Persons.” Danced to a sound score by Gavin Bryars that contained, among other things, a voice reminiscent of Omar Sharif’s giving instructions on how to cheat at cards. After the first section, which was sustained primarily by the novelty of the sound score, Cooley’s choreography became creepy and then, even worse, it became predictable and uneventful. Once again, Riemo stood out in the ensemble for investing the rather unremarkable choreography with a charming, Chaplinesque quality and an unwavering commitment to every movement at any given moment.

My major complaint with the PDC concert was that it lacked overall choreography that struck me as multi-layered and rhythmically complex. Besides Brown’s piece and Charlotte Boye Christensen’s “Stirrings,” which closed the show, the pieces on the PDC program seemed to always be danced on the same mellow energy level, falling victim to what one of my teachers in the ballet department describes as the “deadly heartbeat,” referring to the choreographic tendency to steadfastly follow the beat and melodic line of the music, plodding along without any variation. In the case of the PDC choreography, the movement absolutely refuses to follow the rhythm of the music, never varying in its “rebelliousness,” and thus establishing a different kind of heartbeat, but it is nevertheless a deadly one.

How fortunate Salt Lake City’s modern dance community is to have an artist like Charlotte Boye Christensen to create new works, as well as reviving her existing works for all the incredible modern dance companies that Salt Lake City possesses. Although “Stirrings” was choreographed in 1995, watching it was more refreshing than watching the majority of the premieres on the PDC program. The fluttering steps in the choreography echo the fluttering sounds of nature evident in the John Adams minimalist score, and when the soaring, inspirational sounds of Shaker hymns came into Adams’ music, then broader, sweeping movements came into Boye Christen’s choreography. Here I saw variety and vitality in the steps, patterns and performance quality of “Stirrings.”

At the beginning and end of the Performing Dance Company Spring Concert, I wanted to leap out of my seat and join the dancers because the first and last pieces looked so joyful and fulfilling to perform. The other pieces on the program simply lacked this inspirational quality, and judging by the internal, unenergetic expressions on some of the dancers’ faces during these other pieces, I don’t think the dancers were all that inspired either.

Go to the latest PDC concert for “Come ‘Ye” and “Stirrings” and for the visual feast created by designers Duffy and Rasmussen. In many cases, the eye candy and engaging dance environments provided by these two artists are the saving grace of many a dance piece.

Performing Dance Company’s Spring Concert continues at the Marriott Center for Dance April 3-5 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the door or through ArtTix (355 ARTS).
megan@red-mag.com