Word: graney
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Graney's new dance "Faith" attests to the power and mystique of women. Performed last weekend at Emerson Majestic Theatre in Boston, this piece offered the audience a variety of images of women, from the sultry harlot in a tight dress to the vulnerable nymph in the nude...
...Graney claims that the paintings of Caravaggio and Michelangelo, as well as the writings of Roshi Jiyu-Kennett of Shasta Abbey, inspired her to choreograph "Faith." Perhaps because of these visual and intellectual sources of inspiration, "Faith" seems more like a procession of portraits and ideas than a display of physical ability. Ultimately, the mood of the piece is so stagnant that Graney's greater message is lost...
...rubber balls. Although the music in this segment remains light-hearted and upbeat, the dancers' motions slow considerably: they drop to the floor, gently manipulating the balls over their bodies. This playful scene seems like an appropriate place for the women to display some of their acrobatic prowess, the Graney reverts to the earlier solemnity and deprives the audience of the energetic interlude it needs...
...sexual overtones of the second section do serve as a lead-in to the next, in which Graney explores women's roles as sex objects. No longer playful, the women now strut coolly about the stage in their tight velveteen dresses and red spike heels. The sexy entourage is periodically interrupted, however, by a woman who stumbles in her shoes, tugs at her dress, or collapses into a flailing tantrum. The women seem torn between the power of their sexual identity and the pain they must endure to maintain...
Sponsored by the socially conscious Dance Umbrella, the Pat Graney Company offers an unmistakably political message in "Faith." The problem with this message, however, is that we've heard it all before: women must struggle to assert their own power and decide upon how far they will go to enhance their physical desirability...