Dance and film don’t always mix well onstage—too often the only thing they share is the space. But David Parsons’ new “Dawn to Dusk” uses both so effectively, you can’t think of one without the other.
The subject is something you couldn’t get across without film, an ecological ballet celebrating the wetlands of Florida. The landscape of quiet marshes and trees with enormous, spreading roots is projected on the backdrop, but the line between stage and screen is blurred. When an alligator swims across, an onstage dancer backs away from it. Later, several dancers line up to form the spine of their own alligator.
The dancers show up in the film, dancing on location. A solo in the ruined foundation of a building becomes a duet when the same dancer performs it live.
The deft combining is impressive—and sadly, more disappointing when Parsons loses his train of thought. To finish, he tacks on a sexy Latin number about nightlife in Miami. Though the dancers are all strong performers and look good in very little clothing, it has nothing to do with the rest of the piece.
“Black Flowers,” a sextet to Chopin by former companymember Katarzyna Skarpetowska, also feels one idea shy of success. The piece has an uncertain mood similar to last year’s promising “A Stray’s Lullaby.”
The three men and three women slowly walk in the dark with their backs to us, and one or two dancers break forward to agonize emotionally. But the angst seems generic.
Skarpetowska avoids the stereotypical male-female duet in favor of less obvious groupings, but she ends abruptly before you can figure out who these folks are and why they’re so upset. One last number for the ensemble would help tie things together.
There’s always “Caught,” the strobe-lit solo that’s Parsons’ signature work. Compact and muscular Steve Vaughn is an expert at timing his movement to the flashes so that it looks as if he’s floating across the stage. “Caught” also ends abruptly and hinges on its one gimmick, but it highlights what Parsons does best—entertain.