Auditorium Theatre Presents DEEPLY ROOTED DANCE THEATER’s ROOTS & WINGS Review — Top Tier Dance Electricity

Posted on by Amy Munice

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Marking its quarter century anniversary, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater returned to VERY LIVE performance as part of Auditorium Theatre's Made in Chicago dance series, following Ensemble Español last week.  With nary an empty seat in view, the packed Auditorium Theatre space seemed to shout LIVE PERFORMANCE IS BACK.

Auditorium Theatre DEEPLY ROOTED DANCE
Episodes Nyemah Stuart

Bach’d was the opener, giving first-time Deeply Rooted Dance Theater viewers like this writer a chance to both admire the skill of the troupe’s dancers and crack a smile at choreographer Gary Abbott’s feel-the-music touches, like having dancers rhythmically shake their hands when the music hits a trill. Heavily spiced with somersaults and cartwheels, the movements are as lilting as the well-known Bach melodies. In this writer’s view, Bach’d quickly establishes that Deeply Rooted gives the kind of flawless performance—with each dancer seeming to execute effortlessly—that allows one to better see the choreography as an expression of the music, without distraction of seeing the labor required to make the moves.

Deeply Rooted Dance GOSHEN
Deeply Rooted Dancers in Goshen

What a perfect appetizer for the pièce de resistance that followed and concluded Act I, Episodes. This fast-moving exploration of power dynamics in relationships is accompanied by Robert Ruggieri music that evokes a punch, slap, whip and then again, a punch, slap, or whip in continuous spiral. It’s not a long piece, but almost entirely high velocity with just a few adagio moves, like quick fade dots.

Two male dancers explode on the stage. They remind of switch blades engaged with a snap motion. Black leather clad and with long running strides, they sync sprints and twirls. They point their arms so stiffly they seem to slice space as their duet unfolds. You too, like this writer, might feel their electricity as a sustained jolt.

As they leave the stage, a parade of woman-with-man vignettes follows. She clings, slaps, pushes, and jumps yet again to wrap her legs around his torso. Connections come—and go—in flashes. The clinging body wraps seem to end as soon as they begin. They change planes as quickly and athletically as pole vaulters, but with much more studied grace. Men melt into impossible splits. A woman arches backwards in slow motion like an icicle in thaw. Eventually, each vignette of push-and-pull in this deep dive into relationship power dynamics ends. She, or they, walk(s) past—done.

Auditorium Theatre’s Thrilling Performance Enacts a Story with Song and Dance

In this writer’s view, Episodes alone is enough to convince anyone that Deeply Rooted Dance Theater (DRDT) is on the short list of top tier dance troupes in America — if not the world. So electrifying it seemed a tough act to follow, though the presumed centerpiece of the evening was in Act II, GOSHEN, a re-enactment of the story of Exodus, featuring Gospel Music (choir and soloists) and the DRDT ensemble. We learned from Donald Lawrence, the composer and director, in a pre-performance speech, that GOSHEN aims to be Broadway bound, and indeed much of the choreography has a familiar Broadway dance feel. If you too, like this writer, love Gospel Music, the brightly clad Gospel Choir clapping hands with jubilation goes a long way to making GOSHEN enjoyable.

Any dance enthusiast will enjoy a DRDT performance.

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Bookmark the Auditorium Theatre website for information on its Made in Chicago Dance Series, where Deeply Rooted Dance Theater will return in the near future.

Better yet, as mentioned by Commissioner Mark Kelly at the Auditorium Theatre event, in future years we will be able to enjoy Deeply Rooted Dance Theater performances and more at the South Side Center for Black Dance and Creative Communities, an initiative that they sponsor.

Photos by Ken Carl

Amy Munice

About the Author: Amy Munice

Amy Munice is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Picture This Post. She covers books, dance, film, theater, music, museums and travel. Prior to founding Picture This Post, Amy was a freelance writer and global PR specialist for decades—writing and ghostwriting thousands of articles and promotional communications on a wide range of technical and not-so-technical topics.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ARTICLES BY AMY MUNICE.

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