|
INFINITY DANCE THEATER, TRAMWAY GLASGOW
By Mary Brennan
The Herald, July, 8, 2002
On the programme it said: "Expanding the boundaries of dance and
broadening the world's perception of what a dancer is!" It's a bold
claim, but by the end of Saturday night's performance. Infinity
Dance Theater - or, more precisely, Kitty Lunn (the company's
founder and artistic director) - had made good those words.
Since an accident in 1987, Lunn - a former soloist with Washington
Ballet - has been a wheelchair user. She has, none the less,
retained the upper-body grace, the sense of rhythm, and the
interpretative skills she developed as a classical ballerina. And it
is these qualities that she deploys, to fine effect, in
choreographies that take intelligent account of her wheelchair.
Sometimes it's integrated humorously - as in the company finale,
Hoop-La - where she charges, at high speed (and with a wacky manner)
in and out of kitsch group episodes with hula hoops.
Elsewhere, its presence is dramatic, emblematic, as in Jeffrey
Freeze's Poem on the lid of a shoebox, a succinct and striking
distillation of Tennessee Williams's Glass Menagerie. Here Freeze
himself give energy to the overbearing Mother, impervious to the
vulnerable nature of her daughter, Laura (Lunn), who is, as it were,
"crippled" by shyness. The moment when Laura's gentleman caller
lifts her from the chair, cradles her, then stands her unsupported
and turns away - Lunn sways, then falls - is truly poignant. The
prevailing mood of the programme is, however, distinctly upbeat and
positive. Though Lunn tends to capture your attention most, and not
just because she has such vitality, the rest of the company are
given plenty of opportunities to prove themselves in a programme
that challenges attitudes to disability in a highly entertaining
way.
|
