dance as if everyone's watching

We've had the great privilege of attending three dance performances in the last nine days. I've mentioned one already -- by Rennie Harris Puremovement. We also saw performances by David Dorfman Dance and David Parker and the Bang Group. Each of these performances (and the other three we'll see in the next two weeks as part of the Summer Stages Dance Series in Concord MA) included a question-and-answer session at the end.

None of these choreographers is as famous as, say, Mark Morris, but they're all good, and have all been around for a while. In fact, these three men are in their 40s and are still dancing (energetically, I might say), but they are becoming physically limited; in some cases, their vision needs to be breathed into younger dancers who are more physically capable.

I was intrigued by the variety of opinions about what makes a dance troupe. For Rennie Harris, the dancers are individually accomplished first and then assemble their strengths into a troupe -- think of a jazz band of talented musicians, playing together for a short while, then each having an opportunity to showcase their talents. David Dorfman, on the other hand, loves collaboration. He's had to work hard to get dancers, who expect to be told what to do, to invent their own voice to add to the chorus that he leads. And David Parker is way at the other end of the spectrum -- the choreography is all his; the dancers are welcome to express their opinions, but DP doesn't necessarily listen to any of them.

Rennie Harris was the most thought-provoking, because his troupe does hip-hop, encompassing the full range of all human emotion. He mentioned that in the beginning, when he danced with just men, they just danced. As he added women to his troupe, they started asking annoying questions such as "what's the motivation for the dance?" But he started to develop answers, and as he explored his own thoughts, the dance became richer.

David Dorfman talked about how in his life, he feels like he's off kilter, so his dance is about being off-balance and not fitting in. He also expressed his gratitude for his family (his wife appeared in a fun and loving duet with him), his dance family (his troupe, who in turn expressed gratitude to him and to their colleagues), and to his artistic family, those of us in the audience.

David Parker injected the most humor into his dance, though as he said in a recent interview, never at the expense of the dancers. He also pushed gender barriers the most. One piece, which featured two men and two women, all in identical stunning red dress/suits, was about passion and requited and unrequited love, and had inventive symmetries and athleticism. Oh, and it was danced to a Rachmaninoff piano concerto. At the very end, I was laughing out loud, unable to help myself.

And we have a contra dance next weekend, which can be funny, collaborative, choreographed, (and in our version, gender-challenging), but only rarely as graceful as what we've been watching lately. One can always dream.