Dance Review: Garth Fagan Dance's "Lighthouse/Lightning Rod"

Garth Fagan creates in good company. His new work, “Lighthouse/Lightning
Rod,” wows with the combined powers of his uniquely stylized and gorgeously
executed choreography, the bang-up score by jazz great Wynton Marsalis, and
bewitching stage sets from Alison Saar, Guggenheim and two times National
Endowment of the Arts Fellow. Saar’s sculptures are a stand-out, bestowing
dignity and a mysterious power to this production.

“Lighthouse/Lightning Rod” is Fagan’s second full-scale
collaboration with Marsalis; the first was the company favorite “Griot” (excerpts from “Griot” are
included in some of the programs during Garth Fagan Dance’s current slate of
performance at Nazareth College Arts Center, which runs through Sunday,
December 2). The new piece is complex in theme and widely varied in content. It
has much to offer – the audience rose like a wave itself as the curtain closed
on the final section – but can also, at times, overwhelm and befuddle.

As always when watching Fagan’s world-renowned company, I
luxuriated in the kinetic transport his dancers bestow with their exacting
execution of their director’s inspirations. Every new encounter with this
company promises a study of almost otherworldly movement, and this current
residency was no exception, especially when gifted veteran Norwood ‘PJ’ Pennewell was on stage.

His solo during the midsection, subtitled “Memories,”
evocatively communicated lingering loss. His dancing was minimal, contained,
seemingly showing how grief can sap a person. Yet even when he seemed to be
merely marking the moves rather than performing them full out – this was definitely
intentional – his movements spoke succinctly and with complete focus. Pennewell is a superb dancer; he can make the most
difficult moves appear effortless. His execution of a series of jetes while maintaining fluidly flowing arms belied its
level of difficulty (try patting your stomach while scratching your head times 100).
We are lucky to have him here.

However, other parts of “Lighthouse/Lightning Rod” lacked
clarity for me. There was so much to sort out that it interrupted the flow.
Maybe I was overthinking, but on the other hand, I also had the privilege of
having Fagan dissect the piece for me in detail earlier this month

I knew, for example, that a section featuring slaves
appearing in “Memories,” the middle section of the work, was a nod to the
atrocities endured by African Americans, referencing the necessity of keeping
this chapter of history alive in our collective memory. It’s not so much a
lament, Fagan explained to me, but a tribute to those who found the strength to
retain the dignity and the empathy that make us human.

In the piece Lindsay Renea and Shanon Castle beautifully portrayed two women holding their
heads high and supporting each other in a show of calm strength in the midst of
terror and calamity. Dancers in wrapped heads and aprons shuffled by, cowed toward the ground. Another woman was carried overhead,
writhing in protest, while Castle and Renea stoically
carried on with their inward-turned dance.

So, while there was much to admire in this section, it was
disconcerting to have it suddenly thrust forward in the middle of “Lighthouse/Lightning
Rod,” which started out straightforward enough – dancers clad in blue and
purple gauzy skirts and multi-colored leotards in an obvious maritime theme for
the first section, called “Lighthouse.” The movement here was light and jaunty
initially, dancers moving in undulating waves as if getting a feel for the
water, before turning desultory. It was a bit of a downer to watch the dancers
moving on a low horizontal plane during this portion of the lush music, heads
and faces downcast as they scuttled frantically side-to-side like crabs.
Perhaps they were paying homage to the female figure towering above them – Demeter-like
protector, nourishing mother, guiding lighthouse.

And what a lighthouse! Gasps were audible when the curtain
rose on Saar’s creation. Constructed out of foam with a bronze-painted,
African-featured head, the structure rose from the floor in a cone-shaped white
dress flowing into a torso with one breast bared and an armful of branches.
Equally impressive was the sculpture for “Memories,” a giant horizontal
structure resembling at first a tangle of thorny branches, but, when propelled
fully on-stage, revealed to be merely brambly hair atop a ferocious head,
glowing red eyes glittering from its face.

The eyes seemed to watch as Natalie Rogers, Nicolette Depass, and VitolioJeune danced together in a depiction of a consensual ménage
a trios. This should have been steamier. Jeune exuded
primal instincts, his movements smoldered with languid sexuality and vibrant
passion, but they were neither well directed nor well received. It seemed as if
he was making love to himself, the women each dancing alone with scarcely any
interplay between them. Rogers ended up briefly in Jeune’s
arms, but it left me cold. Her technique, on the other hand, was startlingly
spot-on for a dancer coming off an eight-year hiatus from the stage. Kudos to Depass as well for dancing into
her second trimester of pregnancy — and to Fagan for asking her to.

The final section of “Lighthouse/Lighting Rod” left me very
satisfied. As promised, the choreography and music was, frankly, electric. The
dancers were not left behind for a second as they shimmied and shimmered in
their black leotards draped with silver sequined sashes, setting the audience
hooting. The lighting here, by Hideaki Tsutsui, was
brilliant. A shift down to a mustard-hued backdrop marked some subtle, albeit powerful
transformation of the dancers’ movement that I have no words for, only a
remembered shiver of awe and a salute to Fagan for doing it yet again.

Garth Fagan Dance will perform Friday, November 30, at 8
p.m., Saturday, December 1, at 2 & 8 p.m., and Sunday, December 2, at 2
& 7:30 p.m. at Nazareth College Arts Center (4245 East Ave.). For more information
or tickets visit the websites for Garth Fagan Dance or Nazareth College Arts
Center.