Jacob’s Pillow is all-too-quickly coming to the end of its 75th anniversary season!
Think of
someone you know, or may have met, whose 75 years of life seem only to
invigorate, strengthen and inspire them and, by extension, you. That’s the
Pillow for me and thousands of others. How I would have enjoyed more time in
the Berkshires this season, but I could carve out only a single week and so,
earlier this month I had another typical JP experience: a
Henri Oguike works out of
All the
dancers have distinctive personalities and each responds to the choreography
without ever working to blend into some larger pattern. Movement which demands
minute attention to moving body parts, connecting elements like knees and
ankles, elbows and fingers, are pushed to the limit. And the dancers punctuate
without ever confusing. Further, there is not a moment when our eye is drawn to
a single artist unless Oguike’s masterful eye sharpens our own focus.
White Space opened the programme. Beautifully lit (by
designer Guy Hoare) areas revealed bodies in space, separate and in
combination. Dancers’ visual narratives introduced us to Oguike’s vocabulary
and style at the same time that they brought us into their carefully defined
world. Bold, extended body language was coupled with almost fanatic attention
to smaller details. The canvas was richly textured.
Expression Lines, a solo performed by Oguike himself, and Tiger Dancing, a company piece, made up the second of three
acts. And this was followed by Second
Signal, the music for which was
accompanied by Taiko Meantime, a trio of Taiko drummers: Mark Alcock, James Barrow, Ed Pickering. The synergy between music and movement was
mesmerizing. The imagery of sound and body gained momentum and built to a
climax of spontaneous audience cheers. In the late 60’s, when the musical revue
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well… first opened in New York, one critic was quoted as
declaring that the material was capable of driving an audience to a frenzy. I
never quite understood how that particular show could have prompted such
trumpeting. After experiencing the Henri Oguike Dance Company, I now understand
what that means.
Jacob’s Pillow
gets better with each season, not because the work onstage is compared in
good-better-best terms, one company to the next, but especially because the
work is brought to us with fiery determination and unapologetic adoration. And
the entire creative and administrative team at the Pillow shares the honour of
achieving so much and dreaming of so much more.