Minneapolis, Minnesota
DRP Dance is presenting Modern Muses, a work in seven movements, in the 2008 Minnesota Fringe Festival. This year marks DRP’s third appearance in the Fringe. It is my first encounter with the modern dance choreography of its founder, Danielle Robinson-Prater. Attending one of five performances at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis is a perfectly pleasant way to spend 45 minutes.
The opening segment, set to Arvo Part, introduces four dancers – Joanie Mix, Jill Hargreaves Murphy, Sara Stevenson Scrimshaw, and Gretchen Talbot – and their program. Black costumes and momentary pools of white light produce a classical set of images in a series of movement vignettes spaced around the stage.
Three solos follow, labeled in order as the muses of hope, knowledge, and conflict. Hargreaves Murphy dances first, to Mozart, in a lyrical movement that mines the music’s timing smoothly and without complexity. Stevenson Scrimshaw takes the stage next with musical backing by Villa Lobos. She is followed by Mix, whose accompaniment by the electronic music artist Aphex Twin does not suggest conflict.
While the musical tempo picks up in a second full-group section – again, Aphex Twin – the collective movement tempo does not, although individual dancers give evidence of matching the music. This section sports the only few moments when the dancers show any uncertainty about the choreography. Talbot's subsequent solo as the Muse of Passion has an internal, organic feel that embodies the music by the Welsh composer Karl Jenkins more effectively than was the case for the group finale.
Robinson-Prater has a good sense of choreographic structure but command of a limited movement vocabulary. After a few minutes of viewing, one has the feeling of seeing the same dance repeated to different music. This choreographer and her dancers work hard. She is capable of much greater accomplishment, as are they.
In future, someone needs to proofread the printed program for spelling and the inclusion of last names for production personnel. Yes, the Fringe is a somewhat informal affair in the heat of August, but God lives in the details!
DRP Dance and Modern Muses continue at the Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Ave., S., Minneapolis, Aug. 9 @ 10pm and Aug. 10 @ 7pm. Admission: $12 + one-time purchase of a $3 Fringe Festival button.
Showing posts with label DRP Dance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DRP Dance. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Fringin' and dancin'
Minneapolis, Minnesota
If you have not submitted your advertising banner to the website of the Minnesota Fringe Festival by now, you are out of luck. It is one of the lowest cost deals in town and, between now and mid-August, the Fringe's will be one of the top five most active websites in Minnesota!
The festival runs 11 days, July 31 - Aug. 10, at numerous venues in the Uptown, West Bank, Northeast, and North Loop neighborhoods of Minneapolis. At least 1,000 artists will present more than 800 performances of 156 different shows, aided by 400 volunteers.
As a sassy teenager of 15, the Fringe has outgrown the pangs of its 1993 birth, delivered with a loan from the Cedar Riverside Business Association. It now is the Midwest's largest performing arts festival, and the largest nonjuried and uncensored Fringe in the U.S.
As my friend, John Munger, noted on his blog, Going Through the Movements, the Fringe "offers more dance in 11 days than any part of the [Twin Cities] dance community offers at any other time of the year." He has the statistics to prove it. I intend to see at least three of this year's dance offerings.
Live Action Set is creating some of the freshest and most engaging work in town these days. Its show, Deviants, will play at The Soap Factory, with a cast including Noah Bremer, Megan Odell, Robert Rosen, Galen Treuer, and Vanessa Voskuil. These are the folks who brought us the 2005 Fringe hit Please Don't Blow Up Mr. Boban.
Last year, Penelope Freeh presented one of the strongest shows in the Fringe. This year's offering is small aïda, a two-woman show for herself and Stephanie Fellner, to be performed at Theatre de la Jeune Lune.
DRP Dance will make its third Fringe appearance with Modern Muses at the Southern Theater. It features four women performing choreography by Danielle Robinson-Prater.
The maximum ticket price for any Fringe show is $12, plus a one-time button purchase for $3. A complete schedule for the festival is at www.fringefestival.org.
If you have not submitted your advertising banner to the website of the Minnesota Fringe Festival by now, you are out of luck. It is one of the lowest cost deals in town and, between now and mid-August, the Fringe's will be one of the top five most active websites in Minnesota!
The festival runs 11 days, July 31 - Aug. 10, at numerous venues in the Uptown, West Bank, Northeast, and North Loop neighborhoods of Minneapolis. At least 1,000 artists will present more than 800 performances of 156 different shows, aided by 400 volunteers.
As a sassy teenager of 15, the Fringe has outgrown the pangs of its 1993 birth, delivered with a loan from the Cedar Riverside Business Association. It now is the Midwest's largest performing arts festival, and the largest nonjuried and uncensored Fringe in the U.S.
As my friend, John Munger, noted on his blog, Going Through the Movements, the Fringe "offers more dance in 11 days than any part of the [Twin Cities] dance community offers at any other time of the year." He has the statistics to prove it. I intend to see at least three of this year's dance offerings.
Live Action Set is creating some of the freshest and most engaging work in town these days. Its show, Deviants, will play at The Soap Factory, with a cast including Noah Bremer, Megan Odell, Robert Rosen, Galen Treuer, and Vanessa Voskuil. These are the folks who brought us the 2005 Fringe hit Please Don't Blow Up Mr. Boban.
Last year, Penelope Freeh presented one of the strongest shows in the Fringe. This year's offering is small aïda, a two-woman show for herself and Stephanie Fellner, to be performed at Theatre de la Jeune Lune.
DRP Dance will make its third Fringe appearance with Modern Muses at the Southern Theater. It features four women performing choreography by Danielle Robinson-Prater.
The maximum ticket price for any Fringe show is $12, plus a one-time button purchase for $3. A complete schedule for the festival is at www.fringefestival.org.
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