On Friday, May 3, 2024 Highways Performance Space presented midLife dance project – Varietals, Blends and Flashbacks: An Evening of Dance, Theatre, and W(h)ine choreographed by Patrick Damon Rago with creative input by the dancers. Rago performed with the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company and has also performed in works by Doug Varone, Laura Dean, Ann Carlson, and Creach & Koester. A beautiful mover who performs with great ease, his style appears to be influenced by the release technique used by Trisha Brown and others.
We first saw Rago when he walked out to welcome the audience and thank them for coming. He then related that when he first knew that it was time for him to put together a show, how he kept his wife awake mulling the ideas around in his head so he got up and began moving around. Four of Rago’s current Loyola Marymount University dance students entered the stage and he ran them through a series of structured, preplanned improvisations which they performed quite well.
Stephanie Benson & Celia McNulty in Patrick Rago’s “midLife dance project” – Photo by Elyse Frelinger Lefkovitch.
The entire cast entered one by one as Rago invited them in to perform a phrase that they had been working on. It was a great way to be introduced to each performer and to see how they liked to move. The entire cast then began to walk around in another structured improvisation with a few fixed duets that one dancer could do with anyone they chose. Some mirrored another dancer’s movements while another copied and danced with someone.
Here we got introduced to comedian Gregory Beirne who posed as a wine connoisseur who was waiting for the results of a test he took in France to become a master of wines. While he was waiting, Beirne began instructing the audience on different types of excellent and not so good wine. The first was supposedly an expensive wine, a 2021 California wine called HIT and a cheaper white wine in a box that cost $3.99. Beirne appeared several times throughout the show and while he was funny the first couple of times, his drunken disappointed test failure lost its appeal very early on. Beirne’s act only helped to drag the show down.
Nicholas Heitzeberg & Diana Dee Delcambre in Patrick Rago’s “midLife dance project” – Photo by Elyse Frelinger Lefkovitch.
There was a very nice quintet about being the outsider that featured four women and the beautiful Laura Ann Smyth who is on the LMU Dance faculty. The piece involved a soloist, Smyth, performing while the four danced duets or all four in unison. It was a short piece but hit home with its message.
More group improvisation, a gorgeous duet wonderfully between Nicholas Heitzeberg and Diana Lee Delcambre; a duet between Rago and former LMU dance faculty member Lisa Gillespie that highlighted what beautiful dancers they are; a very moving and lyrical solo by guest artist dancer, visual artist and educator Jude Clark-Warnisher; and a throw away but charming social dance style duet with Rago and musical theater dancer Amy Nelson Frelinger.
Jude Clark-Warnisher in Patrick Rago’s “midLife dance project” – Photo by Elyse Frelinger Lefkovitch.
The evening ended with the cast getting willing audience members onto the stage to dance and improv together.
I was not overwhelmed by Rago’s midLife dance project – Varietals, Blends and Flashbacks: An Evening of Dance, Theatre, and W(h)ine but overall, the evening was a very pleasant reflection on his past history as a dancer, performer and Professor of Theatre Arts & Dance at Loyola Marymount University, as well as a showcase for former and current LMU faculty and students. It does not appear that Rago is slowing down as a dancer and anyone who is still moving that well should not.
The entire cast included: Gregory Beirne, Stephanie Benson, Jude Clark-Warnisher, Diana Dee Delcambre, LIsa Gillespie, Nicholas Heitzeberg, Celia McNutly, Amy Nelson Frelinger, Caroline Pastor, Katherine Pastor, Patrick Damon Rago, and Laura Ann Smyth.
To find out more about the upcoming performances at Highways Performance Space, please visit their website.
Written by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Lisa Gillespie and Patrick Damon Rago in Rago’s midLife dance project – Photo by Elyse Frelinger Lefkovitch.
