The age-old struggle with life’s impermanence successfully inspires dance
by Mary Staub
Encore Magazine
http://encoremag.com/?q=article&id=483
In 2002 Takehiro Ueyama, a former Paul Taylor dancer, was among those singled out by Jennifer Dunning in the New York Times as “a dancers to watch.” “Mr. Ueyema brings a soft and silky calm and sunny sweetness to everything he does,” Dunning wrote. Today, Ueyama, who is originally from Japan, brings that same silky calm and a mixture of Eastern and Western sensibilities to his choreography. His newest work, Footsteps in the Snow, premieres at Dance Theater Workshop when his now five-year-old TAKE Dance Company begins its fifth New York season on July 30th.
At a preview showing last May, Jill Echo, a TAKE dancer, introduced the piece saying, “It’s about trying to believe that after you leave this life there’s an imprint left behind.” Footsteps, though, plays with transience and permanence on more levels than one—impermanence in snow, impermanence in life, impermanence in death.
Although an age-old struggle and a subject which has inspired infinite works of art, Footsteps commands one’s attention once more and offers a complete, engrossing glimpse of what this struggle can mean. In it dancers glide, slide and softly step through snow, seemingly trying to make a mark in their transient terrain. They faintly, sadly roll, kneel and glance skyward, palms faceup, trying to catch every fleeting moment. Even in mismatched warm-up clothes, the nine dancers in Footsteps bring to life an engulfing landscape which visibly affects both those onstage and off. Music by Arvo Pärt further augments the mood of subtle sadness.
‘“We would come into rehearsal upbeat and chatty and every time we’d leave we’d feel all depressed,” Echo warned before the showing. But depressed is too strong a word. The figures in Footsteps emit a persevering hopefulness, never letting the transience of one moment prevent them from seeking permanence in the next. Again and again, they traverse the snow sweepingly and smoothly, sometimes in solitary searches, sometimes with the support and strength of others.
Also on the program at Dance Theater Workshop will be the New York premiere of Shabon, set to music by Steve Reich, and the creation of which was documented by filmmaker Damian Eckstein in A Year with TAKE Dance. Ueyama’s carefree Linked (2008) and Love Stories (2008), a three movement pas de deux, will complete the programs.
Through August 2nd.
by Mary Staub
Encore Magazine
http://encoremag.com/?q=article&id=483
In 2002 Takehiro Ueyama, a former Paul Taylor dancer, was among those singled out by Jennifer Dunning in the New York Times as “a dancers to watch.” “Mr. Ueyema brings a soft and silky calm and sunny sweetness to everything he does,” Dunning wrote. Today, Ueyama, who is originally from Japan, brings that same silky calm and a mixture of Eastern and Western sensibilities to his choreography. His newest work, Footsteps in the Snow, premieres at Dance Theater Workshop when his now five-year-old TAKE Dance Company begins its fifth New York season on July 30th.
At a preview showing last May, Jill Echo, a TAKE dancer, introduced the piece saying, “It’s about trying to believe that after you leave this life there’s an imprint left behind.” Footsteps, though, plays with transience and permanence on more levels than one—impermanence in snow, impermanence in life, impermanence in death.
Although an age-old struggle and a subject which has inspired infinite works of art, Footsteps commands one’s attention once more and offers a complete, engrossing glimpse of what this struggle can mean. In it dancers glide, slide and softly step through snow, seemingly trying to make a mark in their transient terrain. They faintly, sadly roll, kneel and glance skyward, palms faceup, trying to catch every fleeting moment. Even in mismatched warm-up clothes, the nine dancers in Footsteps bring to life an engulfing landscape which visibly affects both those onstage and off. Music by Arvo Pärt further augments the mood of subtle sadness.
‘“We would come into rehearsal upbeat and chatty and every time we’d leave we’d feel all depressed,” Echo warned before the showing. But depressed is too strong a word. The figures in Footsteps emit a persevering hopefulness, never letting the transience of one moment prevent them from seeking permanence in the next. Again and again, they traverse the snow sweepingly and smoothly, sometimes in solitary searches, sometimes with the support and strength of others.
Also on the program at Dance Theater Workshop will be the New York premiere of Shabon, set to music by Steve Reich, and the creation of which was documented by filmmaker Damian Eckstein in A Year with TAKE Dance. Ueyama’s carefree Linked (2008) and Love Stories (2008), a three movement pas de deux, will complete the programs.
Through August 2nd.
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