NEXUS--Hedwig Dances, Ruth Page Center for the Arts

 Hedwig Dances, NEXUS

Jan Bartoszek's choreography demands a certain kind of dancer: one with strength, flexibility, stage presence, technique, an ability to be grounded and a sense of fearlessness. Forty one years at the helm of Hedwig Dances has allowed Bartoszek to develop and hone these unique artistic demands. More than capable of taking on challenges, the current Hedwig ensemble performing in NEXUS at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, take on Bartoszek's vision with grace, power and conviction. Through the program's four dances they shine as both performers and choreographers. Two of the program's works come from Bartoszek, along with a piece each from choreographic newcomers Heriberto Meneses and Milo Sachse-Hofheimer.

“Table of the Years,” the opener and choreographic debut of Meneses, builds a friendship among four people who meet and experience the ebbs and flows of life together. Meneses has found a way to keep things light, while giving a sense of the deep connection good friends can have. Brief solos meld into duets and trios as dancers roll, slide backwards into a split and turn with one leg extended to shoulder height. It's unique, earthy and energetic. Seamless lifts and compelling chemistry between Sachse-Hofheimer and Kelly Kosiek highlight the navigation of a more intimate side of friendship.

Meneses arbitrarily places a table, chairs and a long bench on the stage space (less of that, please) and the dance fleetingly ratchets into a higher gear whenever the foursome actually breathes together (more of that please). Through it all, the bond of friendship remains. Bright arm flicks, leg kicks and hip wiggles eventually link the four together in a delightful surprise ending gesture.

In the profound and animalistic duet, “After the Fall,” Bartoszek seems to place Meneses and Sachse-Hofheimer under a microscope for examination. Smooth, raw and seductive, the demanding muscular tone of the dance (first presented in 1999) is met by the pair as they relentlessly lift, roll and slide, rarely moving beyond a few feet apart. With a simultaneously loose and bound quality, they arch back with flailing arms as if longing to jump out of their own skin. Overhead lifts meld into gentle horizontal lowering, as if setting something fragile on the floor. Bartoszek has pulled back a curtain revealing a glimpse of something fluid, strong, sexy and very special.

Themes of grief, truth and lies weren't obvious (as the program implies) in Sachse-Hofheimer’s premiere trio, “De Profundis.” Instead, shadings of an eerie horror story suggest the birth of Frankenstein scene in Danny Boyle's famed National Theatre production. Occasional body parts protrude from underneath a giant tube of fabric—a nose, hands, a head. From this slow moving sculpture, dancers emerge one by one, being born into a world of harshness and disconnect—a section that could use more development. It's when Mia Barnett is left alone on stage that stakes intensify. Hunched over, Barnett pulses repeatedly trying to stand with no success. This creepy moment is made creepier by a breathy soundtrack courtesy of Rahila Coats, Amaya Peña, Jasmin Feliciano and Diondre Dunigan. The threesome ends the dance with a mesmerizing, unsettling stare at the audience, pulsing their shoulders and heels, an image that feels more like a beginning.

Detailed, theatrical and gorgeous, in the premiere of “Moon Studies,” Bartoszek meditates on our connection to the cosmos and the moon in particular. Aided by Jacky Kelsy's inventive costumes and props, a series of varied vignettes play out in front of Bartoszek's abstract backdrop of projected stars and planets. Colorful layered dresses add a transformational element to the opening duet. Manipulating crescent-shaped fabric props, the pair uses them as head crowns, face masks and neck jewelry. It's fun and bright when the swirling and turning eventually causes the dresses to unravel into long pieces of fabric flying through the space.

Like a Kabuki kuroko dressed in black, one dancer (a role shared by Olivia Gonzales Raga and Barnett) with a single flashlight portrays the moon and its phases. Expertly manipulated, the flashlight “moon” expands, contracts and at times creates walking paths for the dancers. Other times it casts relationship-shifting shadows. Suddenly disrupting the flow, two commedia dell-arte-style harlequins scamper through the audience, babbling in a nonsense language, laughing sighing and making silly lunar observations. They lift and drop each other like rag dolls with jovial, over-the-top goofiness.

This free-for-all blends into a silhouetted duet, then to a hypnotic finale. The virtuoso ensemble lifts and catches Kosiek as she falls. Leaving a long white fabric veil stretching the length of the stage, Kosiek promenades like a queen receiving her crown. Revolving slowly on a pedestal repeating tai chi-like movements, she becomes the moon rising, looking down on earth and observing a solitary human form turning and playing in the fabric moonlight.

Hedwig Dance presented “NEXUS” April 24-26 at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn. For more information, visit the event page by visiting https://hedwigdances.com/.