Word: stagings
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Vance, however, fell the responsibility for two more distant diplomatic problems that also are entering a critical stage...
MARRIED. Aretha Franklin, 36, long-reigning queen of soul, rhythm 'n' blues, gospel and nearly every other popular music territory; and Glynn Turman, 31, handsome actor of stage (A Raisin in the Sun), film (Cooley High) and television (Peyton Place); in a ceremony performed by the bride's father, the Rev. Clarence Franklin, in his Baptist church, with music by the Four Tops; she for the second time, he for the third...
Director Diana Carpenter and choreographer Amy Ragsdale appear to have staged every word, polishing gestures and blocking to the point of stylization. Invention tops invention, and the tempo never falters; the quieter numbers seem to roll gracefully out of the frenetic moments, picking up speed and then tossing us back into the razzle-dazzle. Ragsdale choreographs persons and not feet; every limb has its moment in the spotlight, bobbing bodies trade steps from one corner of the stage to another--and when all that fascinating business converges into a single group motion, the effect is exhilarating. The chorus slides into...
...frustrating incoherence marred both Ann diFruscia's "Prisma" and Elizabeth S.-Wilkerson's "When the Street Lights Come On," accenting the uneven choreography of the company. In "Prisma," large wooden angles and U-shapes hung at the back of the stage, suggesting the organizing principle of the choreography. At its best, the dance was forthright and geometric, firmly asserted on the ground and in space as a series of poses blocked and held. Too much of its tedious time-span, however, was cluttered with extraneous movement: what should have been an architecture of simplicity was badly in need of discipline...
...surely one of the themes of the evening's most outlandish and sophisticated piece, Connie Chin's "Chimera." Chin's own entrance, in a state of hilarious discombobulation, jarred our sense of anatomical propriety from the start. Clad in screaming pink, her face masked white, Chin crawled on stage wearing a sneaker on one foot and one hand; the other leg, draped in purple, dragging behind her like a tail. Once upright, she moved hand-over-hand down her outstretched leg to reach and untie the sneaker, as though her entire body would fly apart at any moment...