by Rohan Preston
Minneapolis Star Tribune Staff Writer
January, 2002
At one point during Friday night's opening performance of "Wordance," highly disciplined dancers in the East Indian style known as bharatanatyam posed like statues -- their mouths frozen in enigmatic Mona Lisa-like smiles, their eyes darting expressively. Meanwhile, dancers using an African vocabulary moved around them in celebratory zeal, forming circles of joy.
This orbiting scene, repeated in variation later in the show, suggested a ceremonial rite. It was one of the moments when the bringing together of ancient African and Indian dance styles really clicked.
The scene also captured the different choreographic ideas in "Wordance," part of the Women of Substance series at the O'Shaughnessy Auditorium in St. Paul. The program of linear movements from India and circular choreography of Africa suggested a Mercedes Benz medallion. Though not flashy, the show, which ends its short run today, has class, style and a little humor (courtesy of the hips of the African dancers).
The cross-cultural collaboration between Minneapolis' Ragamala Music and Dance Theater and the Ko-Thi Dance Company, based in Milwaukee, is mostly an affair of instructive juxtapositions. Both "Wordance" collaborators are strong proponents of their respective cultural traditions.
Ko-Thi, a 30-year-old company, offered dances drawn from secular and court sources. Its highlight was "E Kon Kon," a spirited harvest dance from the fields of Senegal in West Africa, choreographed and danced, in part, by D'Angelo Boston. Boston, a man of immense charisma, livened up the otherwise all-female Ko-Thi troupe that did not always seem fully there -- which might be because the dancers were trying to feel the energy of the crowd.
Ko-Thi also gave coolly competent performances of "Belle Congo," Noel Nantambu Hall's piece celebrating the strength and beauty of Haitian slave women, and "Syntha," a synthesis of traditional elements by Ko-Thi founder Ferne Caulker.
African dance uses call-and-response, encouraging clapping, for example, and Ko-Thi tapped into those participatory aesthetics -- and eventually got the crowd to clap.
Ko-Thi, which is not as strong as other purveyors of African dance, such as Urban Bush Women and Chuck Davis, seemed only very good next to Ragamala, which draws its inspiration from the temple.
The Ragamala movers were hot, showing tightly coordinated verve and passion as they celebrated the creation of the universe in Aparna Ramaswamy's "Srishti (Creation)" and the dance of Lord Shiva in Ranee Ramaswamy's "Chidambaram."
"Wordance" reveals clear similarities between the African and Indian traditions. Both use spoken syllables to set rhythm, and the rhythms played out on African drums sometimes sounded like vocal articulations.
This was made vividly clear by the live accompaniment. The members of Ko-Thi's fired-up percussion quintet made their drums talk, delivering expressive polyrhythms that sounded like full sentences in a spirited conversation. Ragamala's percussion-and-voice trio was less moving, but not in the same expressive way.
The "Wordance" creators paid keen attention to design and visual presentation. For example, Jeff Bartlett's dramatic lighting put the dancers against alternately colorful and black backdrops. They sometimes looked like silhouettes in the sunset, like figurines at a holy site and like images out of dreams.
