“Ten world premieres, by our dancers, on our dancers!” Amy Seiwert, Artistic Director of Smuin Contemporary Ballet, enthused in her introduction of their Choreography Showcase 2025. Presented in the intimate, but well-appointed 50-seat Studio Theater of the Smuin Center for Dance, the two-hour program is performed by 15 members of the Smuin company. The slate of choreographers, all Smuin company members, includes first-time and rising choreographers. The Showcase process nurtures budding choreographers from within the company’s ranks by providing skill building opportunities, as well as insight into the challenges of managing a rehearsal, creating schedules, collaborating with designers and supporting promotional efforts.
This is my first outing to one of Smuin’s showcases, which began in 2008 and have occurred regularly since, and I am impressed. Creating a fully-produced dance, let alone ten, requires a sizeable investment of time and money that few organizations outside academia choose to expend. Beyond the 150 studio hours and fifteen dancers’ salaries, SMUIN costs here include administrative and artistic support, marketing consulting, point shoes, and the technicians and equipment to convert a dance studio into a theater complete with seating risers and black backdrop. Company Lighting Designer Michael Oesch and Costume Coordinator Vincent Avery help each choreographer realize their vision.
Each of the Showcase dances is unique and memorable onto itself, a feat worthy of acknowledgement. The cast sizes feel abundant, as all but one have five or more dancers. Smuin’s dancers are technically skilled and versatile, adept at the transitions of style and mood required here. They clearly delight in performing each other’s work and watching them dance together in this close proximity is beguiling.
Before each piece, the selection’s choreographer makes a brief artistic statement, sharing their inspiration, creation process, or musical impetus. It is a pleasure to see these artists as themselves, out of the characters they assume in performance. To a person, they are well-spoken and confident. Their remarks help the audience appreciate more fully the intent of each dance, while also affording the artists opportunities to hone their skills in speaking about their work.
Performed to the live improvisational piano stylings of Sky Tan, “Her Cadence,” Cassidy Isaacson’s captivating all-male contemporary ballet sextet features sky-high lifts and electrifying partnering more typically seen in male-female pairings. A row of four dancers, shoulder to shoulder, cross-step on hands and knees across the stage, carrying a reclining Yuri Rogers atop their backs. Rising, they lift him high above their scrum and hold his legs firmly as he throws his torso forward and back, a tree’s canopy caught in ever-changing winds. With their support, Rogers surfs his body downward toward the floor, before arching skyward, making a loop through the air. In the second section, a romantic duet for Ricardo Dyer and João Sampaio, Isaacson continues to play with the rectangular shape of a person on all fours. Back-to-back with Dyer’s legs folded upward, his body creates an “L” atop Jacobo’s angular foundation. In the final section Isaacson plays with levels, deploying a line of three who balance with stick-straight legs jutting behind them and arms extended downward. Echoing their silhouette closer to the floor, a trio arrayed downstage in plank position assumes matching leg extensions. Through the years several of the works developed in the Showcase process have been adapted for mainstage premieres at Smuin. I am hoping we see a version of “Her Cadence” in a coming season.
Julia Gundzik’s “Un Paysage Choisi” performed to Alexis Weissenberg’s recording of Debussy’s Clair de lune is a simple but effective neoclassical ballet. An ode to the faceless but pivotal role of the female corps de ballet, it features five women floating across the stage en pointe. In ethereal lavender skirts they shine against a sparkling star drop. The choreography displays strong group symmetry while offering each a moment to shine in variation. I appreciated how Gundzik uses the dancers’ gaze to invite us in to their interpersonal connections. We get a glimpse into the individuality and sisterhood that lies behind their outward unified regard.
With “A Gentle Heart” AL Abraham, in his first season with Smuin, creates a winsome quintet honoring his mother, who raised four children on her own in his native Philippines. His aesthetic is grounded in modern technique, with bent knees and arms flying out from caving centers. Isaacson portrays the mother figure with yearning lunges and soothing self-caresses. Her face cycles through nervousness, to determination, and tenderness for her children. The family stands nested in a row with chests folded over backs, and elbows resting in the palms of the one behind them they rock gently as a single unit. Abraham’s movement conveys genuine emotion, and as his artistic voice develops, he may choose to leave behind the overly-broad pantomime of pointing at one’s heart.
When I saw the stage floor covered in rose petals at the top of Act 2 and heard Marc LaPierre speak of his purpose to convey love, passion, and romance with his “Party Zute” dance, I was concerned that we were in for a schmaltzy ballet. I needn’t have worried. La Pierre’s piece is jazzy and fun, reminding me of a Jack Cole movie set piece from the fifties. In this context even the over-the-top rose petal fountain ending, featuring a petal spouting woman arched over Dyer’s statuesque figure, made sense.
The strongest narrative piece of the evening came from Jacopo Calvo, who crafts his story to the tale told by singer and songwriter Lucio Dalla in his song, Itaca, which reimagines The Odyssey from the view of the sailors, who are hard-working and exhausted. They unite to demand that Ulysses bring them home to their loved ones. In heavily-bleached peasant pants and vests, the 8-member crew are a serious bunch. Their wide-legged squats and rowing formations are punctuated with assured accents. The Italian lyrics of the song are for both a solo male voice and a chorus, and Calvo effectively matches his larger group dances with the choral singing. In the end, the deck is covered with the bodies of the crew, intermittently flexing skyward like fish out of water gasping their last breaths.
Shania Rasmussen, Maggie Carey, Yuri Rogers, Tessa Barbour and Brennan Wall each contribute a work to the showcase. They speak of making work in response to gender-bias, selfhood, and the important people in their lives. While not every dance appealed to my sensibilities equally, the audience reaction demonstrated that all had fans within the amassed crowd. The influences of musical comedy, Latin social dance, club and house dances, and drag lip-synching are apparent. Cheers to VIP’s Dyer and Tess Lane, who each performed in five works, and kudos to Seiwert and Smuin Contemporary Ballet for continuing to invest in the next generation of dance makers. I am already anticipating the 2026 iteration.
Review by Jen Norris, published February 22, 2024
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