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• Event Name: Awakening 2
  "Awakening 2, City Dance Company, April 30, 2010"
  Review posted by: Debby Schiro from Houston, Texas, May 24, 2010
  

  Blending the poetry of movement and the poetry of Maya Angelou was only one of the evening’s highlights in City Dance Company’s latest performance, Awakening 2. Company Director/Choreographer... Expand

  Blending the poetry of movement and the poetry of Maya Angelou was only one of the evening’s highlights in City Dance Company’s latest performance, Awakening 2. Company Director/Choreographer Sherese Campbell and her choreographer in residence, Jaimee Vilela, filled the evening with eclectic works featuring both classical ballet and technically demanding jazz pieces – some complete with live stage musicians. There was even a laugh out loud, fun piece performed by the Dance Circle, Campbell’s secondary company of “mature dancers”, set to the music of Bobby Darren. Only City Dance would dare this and it worked. Choreographer Jaime Vilela, recently a recipient of an “emerging choreographer” award, created a tour de force in her dynamic three person work entitled “The Addiction”. The stark scenery, consisting of only a ballet barre that the dancers are fervidly drawn to throughout the piece, sets the mood as they sway and spin through the movements, making the dance eerie and erotic all at the same time. Vilela’s “We Walk”, with music by The Ting Tings, drew in the teens in the audience and had all nodding to the beat. The title piece, Campbell’s “Awakening”, proved to be a thought provoking jazz-modern piece with floor work inseparably bonding the dancers to each other and to music by live musicians Ilya Kolozs on percussion and Lauren Winterbottom on oboe. And, as mentioned before, the performance art piece set to Maya Angelou’s poem, “Seven Women’s Blessed Assurance”, also choreographed by Campbell, was sheer joy to watch and hear. Vilela’s solo piece, “Nine Lives”, part soliloquy and part dance, was intense, dramatic and technically challenging, and as it is a work that progresses through each performance that City Dance presents, is evolving. It is a unique concept that bears watching – a chapter by chapter reveal of a dance work. In total, the evening presented ten works with the only noticeable glitch being a slight mishap in the music for one of the ensemble pieces, but the dancers handled it well and the upbeat mood prevailed. Campbell and Vilela create dances that make the most of their dancers’ individual talents. Unafraid of creating a company performance with a blend of both professional dancers and a working ensemble of advanced students and aspiring professionals, these two choreographers stretch their dancers’ abilities and push them to their best. City Dance is an eclectic, unique dance company that surprises. This group is one to watch grow. Collapse