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By Chris Dohse
Copyright 2004 Chris Dohse

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NEW YORK -- In honor of the 40th anniversary of Meredith Monk's creative output, Laurie Uprichard, the executive director of Danspace Project, assembled a stellar group of post-modern choreographers to create new works set to Monk's music. If you traced these choreographers and their influences and resumes and their similarities to other dancemakers, then connected those names, lineages, mentors and proteges to Monk, you'd have the material for a fabulous avant-garde drinking game.

Each choreographer in the "Dance to Monk" program, seen November 20 at Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, did what he or she is known best for doing. Like flavors in a broth that has been reduced for thickness, the qualities of their choreographic minds were magnified in unpretentious works that existed primarily to celebrate Monk's genre-defying compositions. But in each dance, an appreciation of Monk's person also abided. Aligned with the generosity and humanity of Monk's own works, any sense of one-upmanship was absent. These ended up being minor works for these major artists, but each was significant as an historic record of the kind of impact one mind can have on her peers. Infected by Monkishness, the choreographers allowed rare sides of themselves to come to the surface. So for instance, we saw an uncharacteristically humane Molissa Fenley, a positively humble Bill T. Jones.

In Fenley's trio, "Piece for Meredith," we saw the impassive, somewhat chilly gaze, the imperturbable carriage, bird-like arms and crab-like legs, and formally formal forms that Fenley has built a repertory from. But set against the ethereal voices of Monk's work from "mercy," we also saw three lovely women who looked at times like figures on Golgotha in a liturgical dance: supportive, caregiving and reverent. When they bowed to the three sides of the seating area separately, a kind of depth to their spatial relationships became present that had been hidden within the material. Fenley's style was suddenly lit in a much different light.

Ann Carlson's "Flesh," a previous commission for Oakland's mixed-ability Axis Dance Company, questioned the quality of the inert body as two women in electric wheelchairs stacked able-bodied dancers in a heap downstage like so much firewood. Wearing nondescript jumpsuits and goggles, the cast might have been spelunkers or skydivers or explorers on an Arctic tundra.

Three solos were performed by their creators. Sean Curran was light in his loafers in "St. Petersburg Waltz." Curran's explosive aerials and petit allegro belied in some way his characterization of a hesitant, avuncular Eastern European folk dancer. But his snapped-to gestures, bowler and wistful shrug quickly revealed his storytelling heart.

Dana Reitz rocked from foot to foot like an obsessive rebirther or Trager therapist in "With Meredith in Mind," and her white tunic glowed in the space with the purity of a healer. Kathy Kaufmann's lighting rose to the challenge of Reitz's history of innovation with designers. Tai chi simplicity gave way to immediacy, and Reitz's gestures began to look like urgent sign language. With her arms chattering against the assured rhythm of her weight changes, her direct, rather shining demeanor cut through. The piece became not about what she was saying but about who was doing the talking, and why, and why we wanted to listen.

Jones ended the program in a haunting video projection made by Janet Wong. Equal parts whimsy and sadness and edited into the form of a duet with his ghostly naked self, the manipulated and halted shots began to suggest absence. When Jones tipped his hat and smiled, we could realize that his entire dance had been based on a simple bow, the signal that something has reached fruition. The impulse of that bow radiated through the audience when Monk came out to receive our gratitude (and to listen to us sing "Happy Birthday").

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