Mordine & Company Dance Theatre
However, dance improvisation is not as easy as dancers would like it to be. There are material restrictions: the dancers usually have to see each other, for example, but are naturally always changing direction. Such fundamental choreographic devices as moving in unison are impossible. There’s also an element of physical danger: if musicians make mistakes, the usual consequence is only an ugly sound, but if dancers make mistakes they can get hurt. I split my head open once in the middle of an improvised performance, which was canceled when I started screaming because blood was pouring down my face–the wound required a dozen stitches. True, musicians can injure themselves–I saw Dizzy Gillespie crack his horn against a ceiling beam and almost split his lip–but the danger level is far higher in dance.
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Mostly choreographed but partly improvised, Tracking the Heart is an uncomfortable hybrid. Its pallid vocabulary includes many of the tried-and-true movements on which improvisers rely. It has an episodic structure with a rather corny love theme rather than an overarching reason for being. Nothing particularly stands out. Yet it has its pleasures. Aoki’s score is always interesting and sometimes stunning. Segami’s paintings look like undulating polychrome landscapes. Kevin Rechner’s lighting picks up her saturated colors, with one sequence lit on one side with vivid pink and on the other with light green, making the performers look like otherworldly creatures. All the dancers are good, but Tracee Westmoreland is particularly fiery.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/William Frederking.
