Yes, Brooklyn does have its very own dance companies. Before
Twyla Tharp flirted with us, and Mark Morris began construction,
there was Eva Dean Dance.
Eva Dean, who lives in Park Slope, founded her company in 1985,
and last September opened a rehearsal space, Union Street Dance,
at 725 Union St. between Fourth and Fifth avenues.
"We perform in intimate theaters in both Brooklyn and Manhattan,"
says Dean. "And we’ve done several site-specific works in
the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens."
This August, Eva Dean Dance is performing a suite of four dances
at the New York International Fringe Festival at The Present
Company Theatorium on the Lower East Side.
Dean, who choreographed all four dances, named the program "Balls,
Balls, Balls" after the featured dance. She calls her work
"contemporary dance" and says it is abstract with a
definite emotional texture.
"My work tends to create palpable ambient environments,"
she explains.
Dean believes she has developed a dance vocabulary that is distinct
and natural, with choreography that reveals moods by exploring
interactions between dancers, individual response and emotion
and spatial relationships. Diverse in scope, the company’s repertory
ranges from witty and irreverent, to sensuous and dynamic, to
lyrical and light-hearted.
"Balls" is performed by three dancers – Dean, Jill
Emerson and Rachael Davidson, who explore the sounds and movement
that can be made using balls of varying size and colors.
Dean says the music they dance to is "a collage of different
pieces of music – Broadway, pop, avant-garde." But she adds,
"It’s a piece that has many different elements in it. One
of the elements is that we use the balls as musical instruments.
In the beginning we create a rhythmical sound score by bouncing
the balls on the stage."
"Balls" is also visually arresting: there are "seal
dives" over large "physio-balls" and a 100-ball
waterfall.
The program also includes "Subterranean Day," an abstract
dance of surreal mime-like motion that occurs in an imaginary
subway station. Mark Wlodarkiewicz created the score by mixing
sounds recorded in a New York City subway station.
"Subterranean Day" is performed by Alex Boucher, Alecia
Diaz, Aleijuan King, Linden Moogan and Davidson.
"Brazilian Rain," performed by Dean, Jamy Hsu and Janelle
Thompson, explores mood and motion inspired by Brazilian rhythms
and a rain forest. It is set to contemporary Brazilian music.
"Welcome Back" is set to avant-garde music and performed
by Emerson, Hsu, Liz Pearlman, Sarah Wagner, Sharon Reiner and
Thompson. Dean says it is about regimentation within a social
structure and how an individual can be singled out and oppressed.
Although Fringe Festival performances are generally outside the
mainstream, Dean says, "Children will love the show. After
people see the show they’ll want to go out, buy a ball and play
with it."
Union Street Dance also provides daily technique classes, rehearsal
space and rehearsal space grants for the dance community.
Over the past 20 years, Dean has created more than 30 dances
and performed at Joyce SoHo, Danspace at St. Mark’s Church and
Cunningham Studio in New York. She has also performed at the
Mobius Theater in Boston, Hampshire College in Massachusetts
and Bennington College in Vermont.
Dean has created site-specific works for Orchard Beach, the Chrysanthemum
Grove in the Queens Botanical Garden and a turn-of-the-century
barn in Sheffield, Mass.
But she has a special affection for Brooklyn. Dean has performed
at St. Ann’s Church and the Brooklyn Music School. And her site-specific
programs have also been performed in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s
Rock Garden, Horse Chestnut Grove and Lilac Grove.
In fact, her work has earned an award from Brooklyn Borough President
Howard Golden.
"Brooklyn is home," says Dean. "I have always
looked to the surrounding environment to do my work. Therefore
I became interested in doing site-specific work in my own backyard."
"Balls, Balls, Balls," at
the New York International Fringe Festival, Present Company Theatorium,
(198 Stanton St. at Ridge Street in Manhattan) will be performed
Aug. 24 at 4:45 pm and Aug. 26 at 1:15 pm. Tickets are $12. For
more information, call (212) 420-8877. For more information about
Union Street Dance, 725 Union St., call (718) 857-8368.
