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image via Third Coast Digest

Stopped by Danceworks on Thursday night with the mothership to catch the opening of DPC’s new show Vaudeville! Though choreographer Kelly Anderson isn’t an original member of the company, she has produced the best version to date (tho I’ve missed the last few years of shows) of what I’ve come to think of as the Danceworks aesthetic. 

To my mind, some of the signatures of the Danceworks aesthetic include:

Episodic construction — a series of short pieces, usually linked in a somewhat tenuous fashion by a single theme.A heavy reliance on lyricality (as opposed to musicality), meaning the movement is dictated, usually quite literally, by the lyrics, not by the actual music. A movement vocabulary as influenced by musicals and gymnastics as it is ballet or more traditional modern dance. The placement of humor at the top of the priority list. Gender being referenced but not really grappled with.

Anderson has done a great job of creating an enjoyable and entertaining hour-long piece. Though the musical selections, choreography, and overall production values are all high quality, Anderson’s greatest achievement is working really well with what she’s got.

The three most physically talented and engaging dancers — Dani Keupper (mother of four), Melissa Anderson (mother of at least one), and Kim Hohnson-Rockafellow (childless so far as I know) — possess very different body types and styles, and though the other dancers also have their strong points, there isn’t much in the way of physical and stylistic cohesion within the company. The choreography suits the dancers — the pairing of of Kuepper with Liz Hildebrandt Tesch is especially clever and well executed — and each dancer is given something they can work with. 

Danceworks Performing Company productions sometimes have the tendency to favor kitschy mime routines over actual dancing, but Anderson for the most part avoids this, partially because the song themselves are funny and engaging.

Sara Caron’s minimal set design made a good home for Ashley Coffey, Kara Mulrooney, and Dani Groom’s costume designs. Of course Jan Kellogg and Tony Lyons do a good job with the technical end of things.

Though I’d also be happy with less kitsch and more serious dancing, it’s great to see DPC continue to improve. And more importantly, other people are also enjoying the evolution — the studio was packed Thursday night and a whole lot of clapping went on before a final standing ovation. The show must go on, and the only way that can happen, especially with the Wisconsin budget situation worsening and huge swaths of already meager arts funding getting cut, is to make sure seats are filled. DPC is great at producing work with the right mixture of arty and accessible (roughly 1:8). I admire the dedication of the main DPC players, and look forward to the next update to the now familiar DPC style.