Joy of Motion Stays on the Move With Its Latest 'Project'

Joy of Motion's "Dance Project" featured choreography by Ting Yu Chen, left, and others. (By Rick Foster)

Promising an "eclectic mix of dance genres from modern to hip-hop to flamenco," the Joy of Motion Dance Center certainly delivered in Saturday night's performance of its semiannual "Dance Project." Opening the evening, "Tribute to Buster Brown" was a laid-back solo by tapper and guitarist Dustin Conley. Alternating between singing and tapping percussive riffs, Conley charmed the audience with his deft changes.

In "Losing Your Accent," choreographer and dancer Betty Skeen juxtaposed childlike wobbles with angular accents as she alternated personas in a dialogue between mother and daughter. The piece, performed without music, was a thoughtful embrace of heritage and inevitable separation ending with a defiant declaration of independence.

With syncopated Caribbean drumming and a festive whirl of skirts, Suzanne Miller-Corso's "Cafes Cantantes 2006" pulsed with a Latin-flavored life of its own. Strong ensemble work annotated by suggestive hip thrusts and perky foot flicks made this one of the evening's big crowd pleasers. In that vein, Estela Velez's "Tangos and Bulerias" attempted to rouse the crowd, but with heavy footwork and uneven dancing by the 15 performers its passion alone was not enough to woo the audience.

Theo Turner's solo, "Knowing Without Knowing," choreographed by Ting Yu Chen, was mesmerizing for its restrained muscularity and quiet emotive quality. Wearing only skirted, billowing pants, he fully inhabited a very feminine set of gestures, giving the work an otherworldly quality. An equally captivating soloist, Reggie Cole, stole the show in Kelly Mayfield's "Pride," a commentary on social identity and acceptance.

Mayfield and Brian East appeared as diametric opposites, the choirgirl and the street hustler, jive-dancing to "We Are Family" while Cole slowly moved a chair with great difficulty across the stage, eventually finding himself alone.

Eerily illuminated by stark lighting, he pushed through the movements as if the air were heavy, anguished and yet redeemed by his freedom, a beautiful epilogue to an engaging evening.

-- Barbara Allen