Double-Edge Dance

The evening includes Seibert in a repertory piece that was performed at the 1990 Cleveland Performance Art Festival at CPT with critical acclaim! Strike a Nerve/Strike a Chord includes: two duets, one nurturing and the other feisty, three solos, one engaging poignant and evocative text, another jockeying between the extremes of unrest and rest, and one catapulting through the space with verve.  All come from a human perspective, reflecting communication patterns such as handshakes that can be ‘just right’ or plagued with misfirings.  Nerve patterns connect and disconnect us along the multi-layered pathways.  The evening ends with Lisa K. Lock performing Scratching the Surface, a work Radella originally choreographed in Lock’s hometown, Basel, Switzerland.

Cool Cleveland Review
by Jessica Grim

Double-Edge Dance @ CPT 4/13 From the edgily playful first piece, Nerve C(h)ord, in which a dancer explores a whole variety of attitudes towards – and reactions to – handshakes, to the dramatic and severe last piece, Scratching the Surface, which takes place entirely under, on, and around a metal bed frame, I found myself completely taken in, and ridiculously happy to be in the audience for Double-Edge Dance's new show at the CPT. The show was surprising, funny, furiously gestural at times, and eerily constricted at others. The music, composed by Ross Feller, both played with and supported the choreography beautifully.
The stand-out piece was Some Nerve. Two women with attitude, whose posturing, confrontational duet is all about the ordinary, sometimes comical way humans interact physically without even making contact – body language in bold *and* italics. And in a sometimes sweet, sometimes sassy, and not a little sexy improv piece, Quick Save, Double-Edge Dance co-founders Kora Radella and Feller enact a lovely duet; Radella, in romantic white flowing garb but with the destabilizing and somehow charming addition of a white silk "front hood" which for most of the piece completely obscured her face, moved around Feller – who stood rooted, playing the saxophone – despite Radella's "messing with him" in some very direct ways, including at one point sticking her head into the horn of his sax. The comic yet sweet, bold yet emotionally open tone of the show struck – yes – just the right chord.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Jessica Grim jessica.grimAToberlin.edu
 

Radella and Karpanty in Some Nerve

Photograph by Larry Coleman 

Photograph by Larry Coleman

Choreography by Julie Brodie

Photograph by Emily Zeller

Karpanty in Nerve Solo

Photograph by Larry Coleman

 Lisa K. Lock in Scratching the Surface

Photograph by Larry Coleman 

Photograph by Serge Hasenbohler 

Strike a Nerve Reviewed

in a MySpace blog entry

 
Monday, April 14, 2008
 
Double Edge Dance Reaction part I
Current mood:  inspired
Category:  Art and Photography

I love to write about performances because it helps me process my thoughts fully to appreciate the experience. I'm calling this a "reaction" instead of a "review" because the opinions expressed are coming from my personal reaction to the show, rather than from a critical voice.

This weekend I attended Strike a Nerve/ Strike a Chord presented by Double-Edge Dance, a company created by artistic director Kora Radella and composer Ross Feller. The series of solos and duets, which focus on human interaction, made for an insightful evening as the performers continually created and broke connection on the stage.

I saw the show both Thursday April 10 and Saturday April 12. I enjoyed both evenings, but I felt Saturday's performance had higher energy, perhaps because the audience was more interactive, laughing out loud and gasping during intense moments.

The show opens with Nerve C(h)ord, which incorporates both movement and monologue. Choreographed by Radella and co-written and performed by Chris Seibert, the piece focuses on the nerve connection (or misconnection) in a handshake. It begins with a description of the perfect handshake that reminded me of a comedy routine, and not a particularly original one. However, this soon blossoms into a description of a handshake with a stroke victim mirrored with the experience of touching a woman with a nervous disorder. Seibert does an amazing job of portraying interaction with these characters, even though she is alone on the stage. She creates a visual and emotional illusion of human contact. I found this segment to be powerful. I work in a nursing home and have had similar experiences with touching the elderly. I was delighted and not a bit surprised to read in the program that Radella worked with the elderly and based this piece on her experiences.

The following four pieces flow together like one complete story. Breaking Point, performed by Emily Lawrence, begins with stiff, fearful movements that gradually become fluid. The effect reminds me of a person waking from a coma and having to discover her body and how it moves all over again. This piece flows into Amiss, a sweet and touching duet performed by Lawrence and Radella. The dancers seem to fall in and out of sleep as one dancer supports the other while the other goes limp.

Some Nerve is a sassy duet performed by Radella and and Kimberly Karpanty. A strong connection is held between the dancers as they tease and torment each other, playful bordering on antagonistic. On Thursday, this piece reminded me of the tensions that exist between young women, perhaps portraying childhood playmates thrown into the dark and jealous territory of adolescence. However, on Saturday I went to the theater with a friend who said the piece reminded her of interactions in a mental hospital. Her comment allowed me to see the piece in a new light. Perhaps the tense and antagonistic movements are a form of communication between two women trapped in their own minds and unable to converse with "normal" speech.

The first half of the performance ends with Misfire/ Rewire a high-energy solo performed by Karpanty. I appreciated the piece on an aesthetic level, but did not find it as emotionally stirring as those that preceded it.

All of the music is composed by Ross Feller, including cello performed by Teddy Rankin-Parker and saxophone by Feller. The music is minimalist and seems to punctuate the choreography rather than propelling it. Strains of cello and dabs of saxophone accent swaths of silence in which the rhythmic breathing of the performers becomes the soundtrack.

The costumes, designed by Andrew Reinert, compliment the pieces perfectly. The fabric, often shimmery, looks beautiful in the stage lights and is never overpowering or distracting. The flowing blues and earth tones worn in Amiss and the red-brown collared dresses in Some Nerve are particularly appropriate.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008
 
 Double Edge Dance Reaction part II
Current mood:  inspired
Category:  Art and Photography

The second half of the performance consists of three pieces that stand strongly as individual works rather than a flowing progression. In Sit Stool Silent Shout Chris Seibert once again uses voice and movement to show human interaction within a solo piece. I didn't find this piece to be as powerful as Nerve C(h)ord, but it did have some interesting moments, including a temper tantrum that is very freeing to watch.

Quick Save is a duet performed by Double-Edge Dance creators Radella and Feller. Feller walks slowly across the stage playing his saxophone while Radella, in white lacy pajamas, physically reacts to the sound. This is the only piece that I found considerably different Thursday and Saturday which leads me to believe that both performers were improvising.  My reaction to this piece was also considerably different each night. On Thursday I found the piercing saxophone notes to be grating to the point to pain. I found the collar piece of Radella's costume that flipped and covered her face to be disconcerting. Overall, I found the piece jarring but very interesting. On Saturday, this turned out to be my favorite piece of the evening. The humor of the piece really sparkled as Radella leapt and twisted across the stage like a cat who is simultaneously terrified and curious about everything that moves or makes noise. The best part was when Radella actually stuck her head in the bell of the saxophone in an attempt to silence it. I hope that this piece is representative of the working relationship of the talented creators of Double-Edge Dance; it invokes humor, playfulness, tension, and harmony.

The evening ends with Scratching the Surface choreographed by Radella and performed by Lisa K. Lock. I enjoyed Lock's Fear of Falling a few weeks ago at CPT, so I was looking forward to this piece. However, nothing could have prepared me for this intense emotional experience. A prop that looks like a hospital bed is placed in the center of the stage. The lights dim and when they brighten again, Lock appears stunning and startling in a flesh-colored unitard and pointe shoes (all the other dancers of the evening are barefoot). She wears faux metallic nails and scratches the screen on top of the bed frame. There is no sound except the scratching. Lock begins to slide and twist around the bed as the stage lights highlight her muscles. My first impression of the piece was that it reminded me of a prisoner in a cell or a patient in a mental ward. However, the fluidity and precision of Lock's movement suggests something beyond human, perhaps animal or ethereal.

There is only one weekend left for DanceWorks at Cleveland Public Theater. I can't wait to check out Morrison Dance next week. CPT continues to surprise, startle, and delight.

- Genevieve, MySpace blog entry

Choreography by Kora Radella
Music by Ross Feller
Danced by Kim Karpanty & Kora Radella