Shawn Harper
A woman raises her hands high surrounded by a ring of other dancers.
Kanopy dancer Miye Bishop, center, in 'Renascence.'
Kanopy Dance choreographers Robert E. Cleary and Lisa Thurrell grab hold of Michael Bell’s symphony Regeneration: A Pentalogy and make it into an immersive dance world they call Renascence. It’s a new portion of its five-part dance to Bell’s symphony and the heart of the troupe’s current program, “Inner Passages.”
Regeneration: A Pentalogy is inspired by the grand storytelling of 19th century composers such as Tchaikovsky. I hear echoes of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, and Celtic and klezmer melodies and rhythms as well. But the music is transformed by Kanopy’s story of an ancient world’s animist community that must bring the earth back to life.
The story goes like this: The Earth must be awakened to life, but the community tries to bind the Earth mother Gaia and do without her. Gaia, brilliantly danced by Miye Bishop, steps free. Over time Gaia is embraced by the community, raised up on high in a lotus position. Gaia makes clear she is not to be messed with, standing on her right leg, body bent horizontal to the ground, right arm stretched out and left leg curled like a scorpion’s tail over her back.
The dimly lit dancers whirl through archetypical movements that could be Egyptian, or figures on a Grecian urn, accompanied with a running snake-cult motif inspired by Minoan artifacts. They repeatedly move into an iconic squatting position: arms up, legs spread. Gaia cleanses the eyes of a sacrificial youth, powerfully danced by Edward Salas. The group flows, rocks from side to side, and effervesces into communal consciousness.
The dancers danced without pause between parts, resting on each other, soaked in sweat at the end.
As extraordinary as Renascence is, it’s only one of several powerful dances that make up the program.
Guest artist Blakely White-McGuire’s first contribution is in at the speed of time/on the other side of America. She creates an entrancing solo of flowing movements to what might be a summer of love road trip in a violent world. The audience claps and chants a line inspired by Wendell Berry poetry as White-McGuire dances in dialogue with a ghostly projection of herself. Seared into my mind is a moment where White-McGuire bends backward over her heels, touches her head to the floor and looks at us, her mouth open.
Kanopy’s second company performs Was, a toe-tapping, hip-shaking Robert E. Cleary dance of pure fun to the Was (Not Was) rap remix of “Papa Was A Rolling Stone.” I’m surprised the audience didn’t rush the dance floor and join in.
Lisa Thurrell’s painfully emotional Lamentation Variation, inspired by Martha Graham’s Lamentation, addresses the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center and the trauma it caused the people of New York City, the nation and the world. As ash falls, a trio of women dancers struggle to hold up the world, their faces turned up, their arms spread wide. They kneel like Atlas holding the world on their backs. They tensely stretch and pull into themselves. The music is Arvo Pärt’s relentless, dissonant Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten.
The evening’s final dance is Blakeley White-McGuire’s These Worlds In Us, originally created as a work on film, then expanded as an ensemble piece for Kanopy. The dance begins with a solo by Stormy Gaylord sitting on the edge of a block. We are looking at someone struggling in a dream. Gaylord uses her hands to lift and pull over her leg, her toes fiercely pointed, foot arched. She draws her hands across her eyes. In corners of the stage dancers act out her thoughts. Then we are inside the dreamer’s mind. Miye Bishop and Edward Salas act out a story within the ensemble of dancers. Heavy drumming accompanies Bishop, who dances an energetic solo at the conclusion, as if the dreamer is awakening.
“Inner Passages” is a fitting contribution to a week in celebration of the Earth.
Performances continue in Overture Center’s Promenade Hall on April 25 at 7:30 p.m. and April 26 at 3 and 7:30 p.m. And note: In 2026, Kanopy will perform the full five-part dance to a live performance of Bell’s symphony by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.
