Gender View at Plummer Park’s Fiesta Hall: A Review

Gender View, produced and presented by Deborah Brockus, with the support of the City of Hollywood, ran for two nights this past weekend at the Fiesta Hall in West Hollywood’s Plummer Park. The program featured works by nine Los Angeles based choreographers and ran close to the full gamut of dance styles. The performance on Saturday, September 15, 2023 had wonderful moments but was weakened overall by Brockus’ inability to get into the venue’s locked electrical board. Undeterred, she and the other artists involved forged ahead and performed with the barest of technical facilities. All the lighting was provided by work lights with no color gels, giving each dance a similar bleak look. Even the audience was left sitting in the dark from beginning to end. Sadly this caused the concert to appear somewhat amateurish but that said, everyone made lemonade out of these lemons.

The theme for Gender View was for each work to be inspired by artworks made by women.  Brockus provided photos and information on each piece in the lobby for the audience to read about, and see,  what painting, sculpture, photo, writing, etc. motivated each choreographer.

Brockus, founder and artistic director of BrockusRED, had four pieces on the program. The first, Bona Dea, beautifully performed by Julienne Mackey, was inspired by the life story and sculptures created by American 19^th century and neoclassical sculptor Harriet Hosmer, who was dubbed the “White Marmorean Flock” by writer Henry James.  Mackey was first seen dressed in all black, her circular skirt covering almost the entire performance area, and wearing a crown of gold twigs in her hair. She soon took off the skirt and used it as an extension for her movement, movement that included elements of Martha Graham style technical. Bona Dea was brought together through a powerful performance by Mackey.

Brockus’ The Brightness of Light was again wonderfully constructed, containing a short phrase near the opening that resembled dancers caught in a whirlwind. Later, however, I was distracted by the work looking under rehearsed. I could see the dancers looking at others to observe what came next. The costumes clearly referred to Brockus’ inspiration by the frescos and painting of the god in the sky at the Louve. The Brightness of Light has potential but it has not yet come together as a completed work.

The dancers included Mara Hancock, Denali Huff, Jolyn Rae, Arturo Gonzales, Bryan Burns, Rebecca Lee, and Anne Lee Rohovec. The music was by Rachmaninov.

Choreographed and performed by Charlotte Katherine Smith and Katherine Grace Murphy, Parallel Play did not rise to the level of other works by Smith. The lifts were awkward and the orange colored costumes unflattering. The two women being parallel to each other was clear but the play between them was absent.

Smith’s program notes stated that Parallel Play was inspired by Reisterstown Mall by Grace Hartigan (1965) and reads “Beneath the gender binary lives a space of pure humanness, but what would it be like if we saw each other’s humanity first, outside of gender.”  That is a fantastic idea that simply did not materialize in this piece. I know that Smith has far greater work inside her.

Brockus’ Antiquities, inspired by the Getty Exhibit of Nicolas Poussain, had some excellent sections where her choreographic talent showed through but there were times when the music,  a mixture of pieces by Mendelson, overpowered her intentions.  That said, what worked brilliantly was how Brockus wove her dancers in and out of the tableaux taken from the artwork she had studied.  For Antiquities, the dancers who rose to the occasion to give us their best were: Bryan Burns, Rebecca Lee, Anne Lee Rohovec. What did not work were the costumes which looked like Greek tunics made by someone learning macrame.

(In full disclosure, Brian Fretté is on the writing staff at LA Dance Chronicle. Until that night, however, I had not witnessed any of his choreography, nor had I seen him dance.)

One of the audiences (and my) favorite works on the program was Blindside, choreographed by Fretté to music by Canadian singer and songwriter, Michael Bublé. Fretté wrote that Blindside “was based upon the art work, ‘A gift for the disillusioned Man’ by Michael Parks,” who is said to be one of the leading founders of the Magical Realism movement.

This well made and entertaining work was performed by Isaac Huerta who not only rose to the challenge of Fretté’s technically difficult movement but showed that he has the potential to go far in the dance profession. The dance had a series of double pirouettes (turns) and fast moving movement phrases that required Huerta to stop on a dime. The style was modern jazz and demanded a dancer with a strong training. Huerta was the right choice.

Andrea Burr, Jules Mara, and Himerria Wortham joined forces to choreograph and perform I-WITNESS, WITNESS to music by Machine Girl, OH! DULCEARI, AND Leston. The program notes stated that it was inspired by “Stuart Hall’s vision of a critical practice that acknowledges that identity is constituted “not outside but within representation.” Far from having the strongest choreography, I-WITNESS, WITNESS was energetic, funky, entertaining and the three performers looked like they truly enjoyed performing it. Their enthusiasm helped keep the audience engaged.

Influenced by “The Gleaners”, an oil painting by Jean-François Millet (1857), one of Brockus’ best offerings on the program was Women’s Stillness; an excerpt from a longer work titled As Ancient and Young as Spring with music by Ukrainian folk music quartet DakhaBrakha. Led by the beautiful Mara Hancock and Rebecca Lee, Women’s Stillness was extremely well constructed and highlighted Brockus’ strong musicality.  The movement was sensual and dancers sometimes seductive, but without ever becoming lewd.

The very strong cast included Mara Hancock, Denali Huff, Joyln Rea, Rebecca Lee, and Anne Lee Rohovec.

Another highlight of the evening was “seven years” choreographed and performed by the dynamic duo Gretchen Ackerman & Alejandro Perez and influenced by the work of David Bowie. I have seen these two dance artists work together before and they complement one another extremely well. Their set/prop reminded me of a bench seat from an old 1960s Chevrolet but was not. It was a couch, a bed and then a combination of the two, its two backs making audible noise as they were lifted, locked in place and then lowered. During the first section it even moved across the stage with the help of a rope pulled by someone in the wings. The Blackouts between each scene were cued by the clicking of Perez’s fingers.

“seven years” depicted different stages within a couple’s life together and included many of the emotions one might experience in a long term relationship. The work was inventive, unique and Ackerman and Perez obviously explored and rehearsed every aspect of that old “Chevy car bench”. This piece is a keeper!

Seda Aybay is the artistic director and choreographer of the Kybele Dance Theater. She is a strong choreographer and a stunning dancer. I have seen her group work and even a duet or two, but this was the first time that I had seen her perform solo.

Aybay was unique in that when she performed, she utilized every inch of her body. As she turned, her arms were often in motion rather than in a fixed position, her hands were often making complex gestures, and one got the sense that even her eyes were dancing. Aybay accomplished all this while maintaining an almost flawless control causing one to see her dancing not just her strong technique.

The program notes for Aybay’s KADIN stated that it was inspired by Self Portrait by the first woman painter of the Republic of Türkiye, Hale Asaf “represents the new image of the Turkish woman from a feminist perspective”.  The music, “Revenge of the Wankers” by Oceanvs Orientalis & İlhan Erşahin, was mesmerizing and totally drew me into the work. This was a solo I hope to see again.

Influenced by women leaders of the environmental movement from Rachel Carson to Greta Thunberg,  Brockus’ Oil-Pandora’s Box was a good closer for the evening due primarily to its energy and full use of the stage. Dressed in earth tone colored street clothes, the performers lead us from being primitive hunters to the present day, often expressing anger at what humans have done to the planet. Brockus left it open as to whether or not life on planet Earth would survive.

Brockus has done more than most to bring live L.A. dance to audiences here and beyond. My hope is that she will eventually get the necessary funding to have her concerts and festivals fully produced.

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Written by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Project.

Featured image: Andrea Burr, Himerria Wortham, and Jules Mara in I-WITNESS, WITNESS – Photo: Ginger Sole Photography