“Caroline Dahm’s “hold on tight,” making its world premiere, was brilliant. This is the first piece by a local Kansas City choreographer commissioned for a mainstage program by KCBallet, though Dahm had previously choreographed on the company for the New Moves series. The administration’s confidence in this up and coming artist was well founded.
Dahm is an exquisite movement artist and her no-holds-barred approach brings infinite innovation to her choreography; she’s not afraid to mix graceful motion with contortions.
She collaborated closely with composer Philip Daniel, who created a score of dramatic contrasts specific to her vision for the work. It was intense and rhythmic, drum-heavy in the first part; cutting to Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces” in the middle; and with more sweeping symphonic and vocal tones later, drawn out crescendi ramping up the tension and emotion.
Ballet is all about extension—trying to look taller and longer on stage than a person stands in reality—and Dahm pushed her dark clad dancers to the extreme: arched backs, rolls thudding onto the floor, jutting elbows, and high, twisting lifts. Animosity and torment laced the first portion: in one transition, two men aggressively leaned against each other like exhausted boxers.
And then…a silver manikin dropped from the rafters, instigating a one-sided funny/tragic duet-of-sorts during the Patsy Cline number.
More than a hint of dance rave followed, with dancers jumping in formation, tightly packed into a color changing spotlight. As they spread across the stage, stark side light flashed one side to another, creating a manic, mercurial energy, the dancers’ stoic expressions in quick shifting shadows.
And finally, where the piece had seemed to “hold on tight” with aggressive force, Dahm finished with a more gentle touch, a duet of tender struggle.
Audience members were on their feet before the curtain went up. Dahm’s work is well worth seeing again, and local audiences will get that chance next weekend at the Kauffman Center and then again when it’s performed by KCBallet in September, during next season’s New Dance Partners at Johnson County Community College’s Midwest Trust Center.” - LIBBY HANSSEN, KC STUDIO
