Modern Dance Troupe Performs at CSUMB

Kari Nicolls, Staff Reporter

kari_nicolls@csumb.edu

May 9, 2008

Within minutes of the opening of the CSU Monterey Bay’s (CSUMB) World Theater, the lights were dimmed and crashing sound filled the room, signifying the opening of “Sporen,” a modern dance performance by the dancers of the Dutch dance company, “Leine and Roebana,” who opened their tour last night. 

The blunt, striking opening of “Sporen” was contrary to normal, which set the stage for the following dances performed by the renowned dancers of “Leine and Roebana” at CSUMB on April 23. Characterized by movement, contrasting music, distinct angles, and physicality, the modern approach “explores space, time, and movement in dance,” as said by Harijono Roebana, one of the two choreographers.

The six dancers of the troupe, made up of three men and three women, come from different backgrounds of dance from hip-hop to ballet. They also come from different countries spread across three continents. They worked extremely well together and appeared to have left the audience shocked by their extreme coordination and ability to move the body in so many different ways. Tim Persent, who emerged as one of the lead dancers opened the performance with the first solo, although each dancer had about the same amount of time on the stage. He was constantly moving in a smooth fashion, making his way across and around the stage many times. 

“Not everything is based on movement,” replied Persent in an open-question interview after the performance. He noted that the girls’ movement was more sensuous and the men had more forceful movement, yet they were all representing “a ball travelling through space” during the first main group dance in which they all donned flowing skirts; the women in white and the men in different shades of grey.

In between sections of more coordinated and flowing dance, Alba Barral Fernandez represented as one of the dancers, what she called, pure “schizophrenia in [a] body,” as she moved every part of her body in ways that did not seem possible, while moving at the same time at an incredible speed. 

This idea was used to describe her moments of complete physical state in which she was supposed to depict someone with no mental insight in what she was doing.

In addition to the intellectual dancing, the music and lighting played a pivotal role in making the performance one worth seeing again. There was a wide variety of music such as opera, piano, heart-stopping metal, country, tribal drums and new-age techno. Each contributed in creating a diverse range of opportunities for the viewer to decide the emotion and ideas that were being depicted on stage.