Originally published March 26, 2007 at 12:00 AM | Page modified March 26, 2007 at 2:01 AM
Dance review
Spectrum Dance Theater: From softness to destruction
In three very different pieces presented at the Moore Theatre this weekend, the hard-working dancers of Seattle's Spectrum Dance Theater...
Special to The Seattle Times
In three very different pieces presented at the Moore Theatre this weekend, the hard-working dancers of Seattle's Spectrum Dance Theater brought to life a harrowing world where there is no safety or rest.
In Donald Byrd's choreography, dancers seemed to want to devour and destroy each other. With changes in speed and direction, they clung to and leapt at their partners, as if survival meant throwing the other off balance. Rare moments of yielding and tenderness took on a contrasting power that made you want to weep.
The program's one premiere, "Nevermind," set to the music of Nirvana, explores images of Kurt Cobain's life, drug addiction, sexual confusion, fame and suicide. David Alewine and Allison Keppel, in Christine Joly's spot-on grunge-rock costumes, dance fraught exchanges of need and rejection.
Moments of ease and consummation are brief flashes only after a finger-pointing gesture that resembles shooting into a vein. The need for the drug and love become interchangeable.
Part of what makes Byrd a riveting choreographer is that he is never afraid to go too far. Even his use of elements that are jarring in this piece (dancers retching upstage, a brief lip-synching sequence, one gunshot too many) become, finally, new forms of abstracted elements, serving his choreography, and, in turn, the story.
In the 2003 "Short Dances/Little Stories," dancers brutally interact with obscenity-laden rap lyrics, while graffiti artists paint on a scrolling back wall, creating a vivid evocation of a harsh urban world.
Byrd's 1995 "I've Got The Wilis" retells the story of the 1841 "Giselle" in which the ghosts of betrayed virgins haunt the woods and revenge themselves on men. Natalie Dahlstrom, Hannah Lagerway and Keppel, wearing costumer Mark Zappone's red snaky leotards and full, billowing white skirts, resemble predatory insects, lowering their skirts over the bare-chested Peter de Grasse.
When Lara Seefeldt, as Giselle, realizes she has joined the frenzy and been the one to administer the death thrust, she cradles de Grasse in one of those throat-catching moments of unexpected tenderness, hard-earned and brief.
Mary Murfin Bayley: marybayley@aol.com
Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company
Preview: Renaissance Singers usher in season with 'Christmas in Cambridge'
Architects, chefs find 'kid' within to build Gingerbread Village
Elton John & Billy Joel reschedule Seattle concerts
Freeloader alert: Free frappés, free hot drinks, free doughnuts
Lit Life: National recognition for Seattle's readergirlz online book community

PNW Magazine | Easy As Pie
A little friendly competition between professional pie-baker Kate McDermott and The Seatttle Times' Kathleen Triesch Saul is handled with great taste.
general classifieds
Garage & estate salesFurniture & home furnishings
Sporting goods
just listed
42" Hitachi Plasma 1080i - $500
8 Drawer Dresser with Attached Mirror - $200
8 seat pecon formal dining table and china hutch - $1500
More listings
POST A FREE LISTING
shopping
events for Monday, Nov. 23
- November sale at Mercer
- Asher Anson Black Friday and December Sales
- $100 Holiday Blitz at Ella Mon
- Furnishments Thanksgiving Weekend Sale
editors' picks
- Pioneer Square shopping
- Vintage, consignment and used clothing
- Garden furnishings
- West Seattle shopping
- 'The Road' takes Viggo Mortensen to Mount St. Helens and Astoria, Ore.
- Tugboat sinks at Seattle waterfront pier
- Illegal workers quietly let go
- Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
- Vikings easily beat the Seahawks
- Craigslist adoption ad: A plea by young mother-to-be? A scam?
- Chase shrugs off loss of CD investors
- Woman stabbed by stranger in North Seattle
- Snow piles up on Cascade slopes
- Denny Triangle gains skyline, but tenants slow to come
- Illegal workers quietly let go
398 - Climate change speeds up since 1997 Kyoto accord
213 - Metro won't cut bus service after all
160 - New Husky recruit: Enes Kanter
105 - Middleton says Huskies "plan on scoring at least 50 points'' Saturday
85 - Tattoos at Mill Creek Church pierce skin, soul
85 - Seattle woman charged with knife attack on boyfriend's ex
75 - Jerry Brewer: Seahawks can't lean on the Hutch Crutch now
75 - Bellevue residents blast new bikini espresso stand
74 - Senate Democrats split on health bill's fate
58
- Sprouts, raw fish on attorney's 'do not eat' list
- Tattoos at Mill Creek church pierce skin, soul
- Food-safety lawyer's wish: Put me out of business
- Illegal workers quietly let go
- Architects, chefs find 'kid' within to build Gingerbread Village
- Rediscovering Moab, 'the most beautiful place on Earth'
- It's possible to recover a life lost to hoarding
- Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
- 'The Road' takes Viggo Mortensen to Mount St. Helens and Astoria, Ore.
- Taste | The Great Pie Bake-off pits friends and fruit

