Dancers of the Complexions Contemporary Ballet appeared stripped to skin tones at the Cairo Opera House on Monday. Unadorned yet chiseled bodies, and lithe, needlepoint limbs are in focus in the opening number.
The joint project of artistic directors Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, the Complexions Contemporary Ballet was founded in 1994 with the aim of removing boundaries in dance, and celebrating its various hues. Both Rhoden and Richardson come with an array of notable on-screen appearances and dance awards.
In their first act in Cairo, “Hissy Fits introduces the dancers that appear simultaneously onstage, breaking off into pairs. Set to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, the dancers in the pair become each other scenter points as they circumambulate one another.
Folk music makes an entrance with Odetta’s “Another Man Done Gone where dancers enter with arms swaying to a rhythmic tick-tock marking time and the somber message of the song.
Color is finally introduced in the duet dance entitled “Momentary Forevers. The lighting gives the piece a dreamlike quality, and when the danseuse bends forward lifting her hands, her bearing is birdlike and fragile. She extends her limbs onto the shoulder of her partner who pivots her.
“Moody Booty Blues is a refreshing step into the modern where ladies dressed in crimson come in swinging their hips to accompany the male dancers. The mood is that of a nighttime bar, and the energy is brash and youthful. The dance fluidly mixes the contemporary thumps and oomph with the supple elasticity of classical ballet.
All previous numbers seem like a lead-up to the final medley in the act called “Mercy. Dancers emerge and retreat from red curtains in the background onto a lit floor, until all 15 dancers are onstage. The women, who start off in minimal costume, join the men’s garb of ethereal white when they finally emerge. They slide in a black basket, dancing around the prop, sitting on it, or dipping an arm or their heads into it. As the only dancer in red is hailed up high, the others drop to the floor.
“There is not a variety of movement in the first four pieces as in the fifth, said a visitor, adding, “As it progresses, it gets better, and more people enter. The climax was probably an intended effect, said another audience member, also noting that the second act complemented the love and emotions of the songs.
Fans of U2 would not be disappointed by the second act of Complexions, which comprised choreography to numbers “that have become the anthems of a generation. With dancers dressed in various shades of red, the medley “Rise is a celebration of love from the pangs of agonized love to its euphoric energy.
“Rise begins with a man in a red shirt running – in the same spot – towards the audience. His pace quickens, and as the lyrics to “Where the Streets Have No Name unfold “I want to run / I want to hide / I want to tear down these walls that hold me inside. The same euphoric energy accompany the lyrics of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – again an elegy to the distances scaled in the name of love.
The energy of these numbers is contrasted with the acknowledgment of pain in “With or Without You in the opening of which the body appears contorted and twisted by the grief wrought by fate. It was only apt that following the invitation “to believe all over again in the power of love the repertoire ended with “It’s a Beautiful Day.
The bleached effect of the numbers in the first act were infused with color and energy in the second, carrying it from skin tones to revealing the rush of youth and blood in the final act.
Complexions will perform at the Cairo Opera House’s Main Hall on Feb. 10 and 11 at 6 pm and 9:30 pm. They will also perform at Alexandria Opera House’s Sayed Darwish Theatre on Feb. 13 at 8 pm. For more information on the ballet company, visit http://www.complexionsdance.org/.
