|
Lane Hunter - An exciting debut for a dancer turned choreographer Wednesday, December 05, 2007 CATHERINE THOMAS Special to The Oregonian Lane Hunter isn't a new choreographic face on the Portland modern dance scene. A longtime BodyVox dancer, he's made a handful of smart, theatrically polished gems for that company. Now he's launched his own company. Lane Hunter dance made its Portland debut last weekend at the Wonder Ballroom with "The Beginning Is Near," a sentimental, semi-autobiographical journey through memory. A suite of nine short dances, "The Beginning" is framed by Isaac Koval's films and constructed around a waking-dream narrative arc. An Everyday Joe with a desk job returns home to his nondescript life, punches in a self-hypnosis tape and drifts through reveries involving love spurned, nostalgic yesteryears and fantasies extravagant and mundane, emerging at dream's end to a brightly colored world filled with newfound optimism. It's not dismissive to say that many of these short dances would play well as popular commercials. Hunter's sense of the cinematic is refined and vivid, and pieces such as "Dear Mr. Rorschach," which imagines an inkblot morphing into a wintry fantasia, are technical marvels. "Rorschach" is a surface piece -- purely visual. But it merges film and dance in a way that elevates both. The virtual landscape streams by, and soloist Allegra Carlson -- seen only in silhouette -- gives it a physical presence with unadorned skating movements that put the viewer on the lip of that frozen lake. Hunter clearly feels a kinship with the BodyVox aesthetic, which also marries film and dance with illusionary effect. And Hunter's pieces have a similar sight-gag impishness: They're charming, straightforward, easy on the eyes. The slow-motion "Once By the Ocean," with spinning paper umbrellas evoking waves, is largely pictorial. The lavishly costumed "78 rpm" finds Hunter wallowing in diva-esque delusions of grandeur while a perplexed houseboy (Kaelen O'Shea) follows at his heels. Even "The Bard's Loom," an older Hunter dance about betrayal, has had its dark edges leavened with upbeat folk reels. Hunter's choreography carries a jazz stamp, and although it occasionally leans toward heavy-handed literalism, it is sparked by commitment in abundance from the performers. Hunter has a great eye for costuming and casting, and the company -- Eowyn Barrett, Carlson, Lauren Edson, Brent Luebbert, O'Shea and Eric Zimmer, with guest Laura Haney -- is uniformly invested in his choreographic ideas. That made even opening-night mishaps -- most notably the rake of the audience risers, which forced those in the back row to stand if they wanted to see floor work -- surprisingly tolerable. Hunter's theatrical production values are high. What emerges next from this young company should be exciting to see. Oregonian • Saturday May 19, 2007 By Marty Hughly The best of the more recent pieces is the simplest. “Squared,” a sly, sexy duet for Laura Haney and Lane Hunter, sets a sort of coy courtship ritual to the jazz classic “Take Five,” and the two find a wonderfully fluid sense of time and line that suggests the song’s distinctive blend of swing and waltz rhythms without ever aping the music. DANCE MAGAZINE By Heather Wisner by The Oregonian Arts Team December 12, 2006b The Oregonian • Saturday, October 08, 2005 by Bob Hicks |
 |
 |
