Choreography and dancer Myles Thatcher (photograph courtesy of the artist, from the SFP Web page for last night’s program)
Last night in the Taube Atrium Theatre, San Francisco Performances (SFP) concluded its annual PIVOT Festival. Curator Andy Meyerson gave a solo percussion performance accompanying choreography by dancer Myles Thatcher. The title of the program was Parallel Play, reflecting the selections as a series of “parallel pairs.”
Those “parallels” involved the coupling of sound and movement. The program began with the now historic coupling of John Cage with choreographer Merce Cunningham. This was followed by Robin Dekkers performing a synthesis of ballet and modern dance to the sounds of Glenn Kotche. The first half of the program concluded with music by Nicole Lizée for choreography by Rex Wheeler. The second half began with “A Noticeable Pause,” Dani Rowe’s choreography set to Danny Clay’s “Still Cycles.” “Portrait” seems to have been a joint project setting movement by Babatunji to the music of Raven Chacon. Thatcher then concluded the program with his interpretation of the Chaconne movement from Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1004 partita for solo violin, arranged for marimba performance by Meyerson and Jack Van Geem.
Taken as a whole, the program served up a rich panoply of music almost entirely from the current century. (The only exceptions were the “bookends” of the program: Cage and Bach!) The Bach arrangement made for a throughly engaging conclusion with unique marimba sonorities that still did justice to the music’s Baroque “roots.” While I found Thatcher’s performances to be somewhat variable, I was still drawn to his interpretation of Cunningham’s “Solo.” Perhaps this just cast too long a shadow over the choreography that would follow!
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