Maureen Janson Heintz
"Consider it not so deeply"
Marlene Skog, assistant professor of dance at UW-Madison, presented an evening of thoughtful, well-constructed and well-cast contemporary ballet. Consider it not so deeply., which opened Nov. 15 at Lathrop Hall’s Margaret H’Doubler Performance Space, was inspired by Shakespeare’s female characters, and his influence is shown through spoken word and movement.
The opening piece features actor Karen Moeller reciting the famous “All the world’s a stage” monologue from As You Like It as the cast of 15 dancers takes the audience through the seven stages of a man’s life. This sets the tone of the production, but it is really the solos, duets and the closing quartet that resonate most with me.
In “Her eyes are open, Ay, but their sense is shut,” Moeller returns to perform Lady Macbeth’s famous sleepwalking scene, and her words are echoed by dancer Liz Sexe, who is clad in the same deep blue dress as Moeller. Both are commanding performers whose honest approaches avoid heavy-handedness. Sexe goes on to perform a wrenching solo that underscores why she is one of Madison’s most talented dancers. She inhabits the role fully, and no gesture or expression is superfluous. It’s fitting that her hands are almost characters unto themselves. They pierce the air around her: swooping, shaking, thrusting, pushing, wringing and probing.
Another standout solo is “Ophelia’s Divide,” in which Kaleigh Schock, in pointe shoes and fluttering pale layers, explores Ophelia’s descent into madness. Skog’s choreography is demanding, and Schock handles it skillfully. But it is the relatively simple series of bourrées traveling backward at the solo’s close that pierced my heart. Schock was able to convey her character’s tenuous grasp of on sanity by letting the movement do the heavy lifting; buoyant jumps and sumptuous extensions juxtaposed with body-wracking tremors.
In “As You LIke It: Rosalind or Rosalind,” Abigail Stachnik is engaging, witty and confident — exactly the qualities you’d imagine in Rosalind. She’s also a pro with the challenging petite allegro. Juan Carlos Díaz Vélez, always a welcome presence on Madison stages, is clad identically to Stachnik, so I’m thinking he represents both Ganymede (Rosalind’s male alter-ego) and Orlando, her true love.
Mary Patterson (one of my favorite UW dance alums) and Kimi Evelyn (a recent grad with tons of talent) gives a fresh take on Shakespeare’s most famous question in “To Be?” through dialogue they wrote and Skog’s fitting choreography.
Amanda Graziano and Kanyon Elton, both ridiculously attractive and watchable dancers, perform “The Other and One.” They are completely in tune with one another and share a similar quality to their movement. The pairing demonstrates that Skog is smart about casting and capitalizing on the chemistry between dancers.
Skog’s best work, “Exit.” appropriately comes as an epilogue. Four chairs serve as launching and landing pads, which the dancers smoothly glide over, hover on or leap off. Kristen Hammer and Stachnik were a pair as were James Hibbard and Lauren Reed. The duos mirror each other beautifully, and I only considered how challenging the piece was after it was over.
Stunning lighting from unsung hero Claude Heintz really was a fifth cast member in “Exit.”
Throughout the evening Amy Panganiban’s costumes elevate the work, particularly those for Sexe, Moeller, Schock and the cast of “Exit.”
It is heartening to see Skog find this new confidence and distinct voice in her choreography for this production, which had a run in Chicago in the summer. One minor disappointment on opening night was that the audience seemed unsure about clapping after each piece — perhaps because they came in quick succession. The dancers, Skog and all involved in the concert earned more applause and acclaim than they received.
