Groundworks DanceTheater alights on a winner with Civil War dance ‘House of Sparrows’ (review)

By Mark Satola, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland premiere of a new ballet by Groundworks DanceTheater director David Shimotakahara was the centerpiece of a dynamic program Friday night at the Breen Center on Cleveland’s near west side.

“House of Sparrows” brought together four of Groundworks’ dancers, the Aeolus String Quartet, and a projected video component by Nic Petry. A meditation on the tear in America’s spiritual fabric brought about by the Civil War, “House of Sparrows” proceeds in nine short scenes, enhanced by projected images from the mid-19^th century and arresting music by Steven Snowden, performed live on stage by the Aeolus Quartet.

Snowden, a Missouri native who now lives and works in Austin, Texas, was commissioned by Groundworks for “House of Sparrows,” and has produced a marvelously evocative score, with elements that recall Civil War-era melodies conveyed through fully modern string quartet writing. The instruments were subtly amplified as well, so that every sighing overtone was audible, and a subtle overlay of resonance was always in play.

Shimotakahara’s eclectic repertoire of modern movement looked especially good when performed by dancers in Janet Bolick’s historical-style costumes — long skirts and high-necked blouses for the women, a Union-suit-style shirt and suspenders for the one male dancer.

Even the Aeolus players were “dressed down” for the occasion, which was appropriate as they become part of the stage action in two of the scenes, where violinist and violist accompany a solo dancer and then the full company in a pas de quatre that recalls both a country barn dance and a music hall number.

On either side of this high-spirited divertissement, the dancers evoked scenes of destruction and loss. One scene found Damien Highfield channeling soldiers as they are shot, his elaborate steps continuously interrupted by the impact of bullets on his torso. This was followed by a wrenching duet in which a lone woman raises his body from the dead for a pathos-laden dance before they both crawl, in their individual agonies, from the stage.

The closing scene was particularly moving. Inspired by a Southern woman’s account of finding her home in shambles and her beloved books and personal papers scattered in the road, the scene managed to create a sense of tentative optimism after the woman, danced here with sensitivity by Felise Bagley, gathers the strewn volumes and, as the lights dim, uses them as stepping stones to an uncertain future.

While Shimotakahara’s dance is fully realized, the video elements of the presentation could be better deployed and integrated. Set designer Ian Petroni has created a house-shaped frame on which pictures, light and shadows are back-projected as enhancements to the narrative — a frame house, a tree-shaded walk, a daguerrotype portrait of a woman, empty railroad tracks — were evocative, but one wanted more.

The first half of the program was devoted to two short dances, the elegant duet “Current Frame” by Amy Miller (with Aeolus violinist Nicholas Tavani onstage playing a Passacaglia by Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber), and the Cleveland premiere of “The Rub” by Robert Moses, who created his own throbbing industrial-electronic score.

While the movement in “The Rub” was vivid and athletic, the style of the music, full of subliminal voices and ominous rhythms, is becoming a little too familiar in modern dance. Shimotakahara’s Civil War concept, by comparison, felt much more relevant and up-to-date.