Review From DanceSpirit Magazine Jazz Dance Artists Excellence Award

While clutching her trophy-made of a magnificent, glistening dancer with a high extension and metallic decorations spiraled around her body-Daniele told the audience, “I hope that someday you feel as honored and fulfilled as you have made me feel tonight.”

The award ceremony was enclosed by 14 dances from 11 choreographers that ranged from pure funk designed to have fun and entertain, to emotive movement born from a very internal place of the creators.

The show was a pleasantly balanced teeter-totter of movement and thought. On one extreme, Jay T. Jenkins and Geoffrey Doig-Marx showed two pieces each that dazzled like energetic volcanoes of jazz erupting to the foot-stomping sounds of New Funk Foya which accompanied Jenkins’ dance by the same name and Sing, Sing, Sing (with a Swing) which accompanied Doig-Marx’s “Knock 3 Times Tell ‘Em Charlie Sent You”.

Jenkins’ work was a very rhythmic, earthy-based style incorporating African Dance movements while Doig-Marx worked with a theatrical, Fosse-style of story telling using sexuality and lifts. In his dance titled A Trio of Three, the male dancers swooned over the females while the girls strutted their stuff with the power of lust.

Balancing the flashy fun was Dreambody, choreographed by Roxanna Young and A Twelve Minute Lifespan, choreographed by Oliver Steele in collaboration with the Steeldance Company. The former piece dealt with the spiritual level of survival, sexuality, and energy/life forces. The dancers were costumed in unitards dyed with pastel and earth-toned swirls. The latter piece felt like the dancers walked on clouds as their white, flowy, garments billowed in their magnificent use of space.

In My Corner, danced and choreographed by Joe Orrach, began with a cathartic round of punching a hanging punching bag. The dance drew cheers and whistles from the crowd as Orrach then jumped rope while maintaining to tap intricate combinations. He then played with the weight of the jump rope by twirling it in different directions and increasing the speed to create a kaleidoscope of color under the stage lights.

The other choreographers that showed work were Aszure Barton, Mark Lusk, Tracie Stanfield, Vera Huff, Lonne Moretton, and Maritza Mercado Narcisse. Hope Clark; theatre choreographer and former principle dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater hosted the event.’