The 2016 premiere Murmuration by choreographer Alison Cook-Beatty, performed by her company Alison Cook Beatty Dance, imaginatively offers vignettes of daily life for a flock of birds. Simply done, seemed the key phrase for this piece and it is said in compliment. Ms. Beatty-Cook’s knack for craftsmanship was the shining element of the piece, yet again.
A fully conceived piece in collaboration with costume designer Christine Darch and set by Daniel & Christine Cook. The music selection is the turn of the century Italian composer Ottorino Respighi’s Gli Uccelli, an opus inspired by birds.
The costumes were gradient colored unitards for the women and tights for the men with a train attached from the small of the back and down both legs to the back of calf. They were simple yet quite effective in offering a flutter to the movement and reference of tail. Truly quite stunning. In the far right upstage corner the sole set piece made of wooden pedestals and woven baskets creatively, and again simply, represented a trio of nests. The structure was the perfect size for the 14th Street YMCA stage, or stages for future performances, while offering presence and allowing space for the dancers.
Many choreographers have tackled the challenge of giving the illusion of flight to their dancers. In Ms. Cook-Beatty’s attempt, she did not hide the fact of the obvious restrictions, nor did she overcompensate.
She gave the dancers moments of flight in many clever fashions including fleeting jump choreography and pointe work for the “dove”. Several phrases used a series of quick jumps to move the dancers through the dancescape with lightness. Specifically the men’s choreography proved striking in capturing the illusion of creatures natural to flight with effortless jumps and suspended descents. The second movement of the ballet, titled by Respighi in his composition as the Dove , Cook-Beatty placed the female soloist en pointe against an otherwise on flat ensemble. The pointe choreography, especially the slow walks en pointe, allowed the dancer to beautifully float through her phrasing.
One effective moment came later in the piece when Ms. Cook-Beatty convened the dancers in an upstage corner hands interlocked in an Escher like patterning, arms over shoulders, under other arms, hands meeting without knowledge of owners. While interlocked, the “flock” moved in swift runs across stage as they curled and unraveled out of their woven embraces into new ones changing the shape of the group. As the adjustments occurred they simulated the amoebic yet concise morphing formation of birds flanking, and the tension between dancers replicated the responsive physical communication of a flock.
Ms. Cook-Beatty’s style is very controlled, leaning toward classical ballet and modern techniques, yet she understands when to release and let movement be telling of a character or circumstance. Throughout this piece the arms were very specific with striking timing for musicality, however, there were moments when play would set in and constructed improvisation allowed the characters to offer bird-esque but human-like gestures of expression. One prominent time is at the end where a centerstage courtship occurs between a male and female dancer that is quite perfectly on cue with the music and warms the heart. These moments brought out the eccentric personalities of Cook-Beatty’s birds, which added another element of entertainment to the audience and gave a sense of storyline.
Author: Temple Kemezis