We were about to see a program with two parts, Jacques Heim, Diavolo Dance Theater’s effervescent choreographer and artistic director told the audience. He went on to describe the Los Angeles-based company as a salad tossed with “ballet, modern dance, gymnastics, acrobatics, and a little hip-hop.” The first half would be a retrospective, he said, comprised of previous works including D2R (1995, restaged 2005), Knockturne (1998/2006), Bench (2009), and Humachina (1999/2009). After intermission, we were to see what audiences can expect from the future of Diavolo–the longer work called Transit Space would allow the company to dive deeper into both subject matter and the finesse of execution. For a group that routinely dives into each other’s arms from 20-foot-high set pieces without any visible fear, my first thought was, wow, that must be fairly deep. Heim exited the stage at the Irvine Barclay Theater, and the curtain rose. D2R began with ambiguously military and choral sounds and rhythmic blasts of light like gunfire. Dancers dressed in dark, utilitarian garb ran, encircling a giant sculpture that looked like a pegboard for human-sized tools. Indeed, as the dancers ultimately mounted the thing it would become just that. Their movements painted them into many different […]
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