Making "History," Live

Shame on me, folks, for not getting up a preview of this past weekend's ASH Contemporary Dance performance at Drexel's Mandell Theatre. I don't know how it slipped my mind. And I really wish it hadn't, because their latest evening of dance, "History," ended up being one I'm glad I didn't miss.

About a year ago, I did an interview with ASH wunderkind Braham Logan Crane (how many twenty-three-year-olds do you know who are running their own dance companies?), and was later invited to see him perform—a performance for which I apparently didn't write a review. I was enormously impressed by that performance, and thrilled to receive an invitation to review this one.

The first thing that I always think when watching a good dance performance is: "Damn. Wish I hadn't quit studying dance." Last weekend's ASH performance made me go a step farther, to: "I am so jealous of these dancers and the fact that they didn't stop dancing that I could almost cry." In fact, during the second piece of the evening, "Finding My Way," dancer Caroline Lewis's touching and beautiful (and world-premiere) tribute to her mother (choreographed, as were all three pieces that evening, by Crane), I probably did cry. Even when the choreography isn't complex, it's powerful and executed with a degree of assertiveness you wouldn't necessarily expect from such a young group. Crane himself, the only male dancer of the evening, seemed especially like an old pro: he just made everything look so easy. (He's lanky and definitely a jumper, which is interesting in opposition to his modern aesthetic: where most modern dancers find their comfort zone is firmly rooted to the ground, Crane seemed almost suspended in the air each time he leaped.) Equally impressive was the fact that the first piece of the night, "Ghosts of Things to Come," was premiered in 2004, which, if you do the math, meant Crane wasn't even old enough to drink yet, but he was leading his own company on tour. (See why I called him a wunderkind?)

The third piece that ASH performed was actually the title piece of the evening. "History" is performed by Crane, Jaclyn Dunne, Christina Fleck, and Katie Gaskill with live onstage accompaniment from (and often interaction with) singer/songwriter Angela Ai and percussionist Joe Abba. The piece is actually a half-evening length work, spanning seven original songs by Ai, who played piano to accompany herself when she wasn't onstage moving amongst the company. Her music and Crane's choreography worked together seamlessly, once or twice almost orgasmically, and always beautifully. The dancers' technique was superb and often at its most interesting when all four would move in synchrony, which seems a counter-intuitive statement until you see it in action. I have years of dance experience telling me that such perfect precision of dancers' movements is by no means easy (not to mention the fact that it's hard for a male dancer and female dancers to dance exactly the same steps, if only due to size). Not one foot or hand out of sixteen possible appendages was ever out of place.

I was really rather blown away by the whole thing—I'm not sure that there's a better way of putting it. Just take my word for it, and try to catch ASH when next they perform.

Image via ASH Contemporary.