Theater reviews part deux:

Out of the Loop Fringe Festival in Addison

by Mary L. Clark of John Garcia's The Column , Carol Anne Gordon of John Garcia's The Column

Ellie Leonhardt presents Pixel Dances/ Satellite-Dance Collective -- Reviewed by Mary L. Clark

I am admitting right here and now that I am not a dance expert. I have taken dance and know several specific techniques, and I definitely know what I like. My entire reason to review both Ellie Leonhardt presents Pixel Dances and Satellite-Dance Collective is because they both describe their work as a combination of dance, music, and video art.

For their productions at the Out of the Loop Fringe Festival, they both use computer technology as another art form within the pieces.

First, Ellie Leonhardt performs solo in both Caught.Catching and Encapsulating. Static movements and long holds interwine gracefully as a camera picks up her moves and immediately displays them on the large projection screen behind. Sitting onstage to the side, with computer and other technical devices at hand, composer and intermedia artist, David Bithell, captures Leonhardt's dancing and, as she moves, the computer (I assume) duplicates her, then pauses her as Leonhardt continues to dance. Later, the technology layers her movement, brings her in and out of the picture, and back again to present time. In Encapsulating, Bithell adds a metallophone, a beautiful Javanese wood and brass instrument. Like a small xylophone, it's low, gong-like sound blends mysteriously with Leonhardt's movement.

Pixel Dances' ensemble piece, The Well Interruption, combine eight women in duplication with Bithell's "vertical set design" - videos of the tops of different trees at winter; swaying, rustling, being still. Colors of ochre, dark green, amber and rust in their clothing further accents the natural setting and the entire piece illuminates calmness. I always love to watch dancers moving in unison and this ensemble easily meld together, fall away, join again and the piece accentuates their talent and ability.

Ellie Leonhardt has gathered a fine ensemble of young women who know their craft, perform with elegance and maturity and I look forward to seeing their future endeavors.

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If you take Satellite-Dance Collective's name literally, it is a wonderful description as their work is collaboration between dance and interactive media – camera and computer. The first piece, The Eclipse Project, use two tripod cameras at each side of the stage with a V wedge projection screen at center. As the two women move from behind and around the screen and into the cameras, their images are distorted by both the computer and the screen. One camera did not seem to be projecting anything but it did not deter from the performance.

I hardly ever use press release text to enhance my reviews, but in this case, it will assist in describing the beauty of their second piece, Water's Edge. This work "is an intermedia dance infused with text, sound score, and projected water images ... illuminating a continuum of change." "Three women aboard a vessel (and)forage into the abyss of change ... pouring, drowning, climbing ... approaching the water's edge" ... "and resolve into freedom on the other side." These three are clothed in diaphanous tunics and pants of red, navy and gold. As they flow, battle and succumb to the water, gauzy color images are projected in the background. The piece is so ethereal, so delicate and beautifully performed.

Artistic Director and Choreographer, Mary Lynn Babcock, founded this company in 2009. While they are still young, the talent onstage is far from novice and has the richness and confidence of more seasoned dancers. I am anxious to see where this young company will perform next and am now intrigued to see more of this imaginative blend of dance and technology - human and machine.

http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2011/mar/10/theater-reviews-out-loop-fringe-festival-addison/

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Pixel Dances Review by Margaret Putnam

Loop Review: Pixel Dances
More on the weekend's dance at Out of the Loop.
by Margaret Putnam
published Monday, March 7, 2011

Dance and video make uneasy partners, but that doesn’t deter choreographers who think video gives them an edge. It does, as demonstrated Sunday afternoon at WaterTower Theatre as part of the annual Out of the Loop Fringe Festival.

At its worst, video can be distracting, even overwhelming. Sometimes, too, the video turns out to be more imaginative than the dance. At its best, it adds a fascinating new dimension, creating in effect a whole new art form. Going even further with video and to brilliant effect was Hans van Manen’s Live for Houston’s “Dance Salad” in 2003, where a camera followed every movement of two dancers and threw the images onscreen.

Most of the time, however, the effect of video falls in between those two camps.

In presenting “Pixel Dances,” dancer and choreographer Ellie Leonhardt skirted close to letting video overpower her two solos,Caught. Catching and Encapsulating. In the first, sound and video artist David Bithell provided low-grade noise comprised of whooshes and bell rings and a very grainy, black and white video. Wearing a chartreuse dress and maintaining an air of somber reflection, Leonhardt kept her eyes to the ground as she danced in a stolid, somewhat clunky manner. The clunky was no doubt deliberate, since it also included a striking image of her lying flat on her back, legs lifted and bent, and her head up. She stayed that way for a long time, like a helpless insect.

The video captured bits and pieces of her movement in a teasing manner, like whiffs of smoke trailing off. Leonhardt held her own, however, if only barely.

In Encapsulating, the tide turned to Bithell’s advantage. This time wearing a blue dress and curled up on the floor, Leonhardt gradually rose to change directions constantly, sometimes spinning with her head tilted back and arms stretched out.

She even repeated the helpless insect pose, and then grew wild and frenetic. And like Caught. Catching, the video danced too, but in very short spurts of even more filmy images. At times, it enclosed Leonhardt’s image in sliding panels, at other times cast out multiple images that faded away in a fog. Sometimes only her torso was visible, and at other times only her feet. The sounds were that of muted gongs, played byBithell on a xylophone.

While video and dance fit very well together in Encapsulating, you couldn’t help but feel that the most imaginative element was the video.

The program also included Leonhardt’s ensemble piece for eight dancers, The Well Interruption, that I reviewed last week when it was performed on the Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth program.

♦ Margaret Putnam has been writing about dance since 1980, with works published by D Magazine, The Dallas Observer, The Dallas Times Herald, The Dallas Morning News, The New York Times, Playbill, Stagebill, Pointe Magazine and Dance Magazine.

◊ These dance performances were only presented once. View a full Out of the Loop Fringe Festival schedule here.