Music and Dance, In Classical Harmony

It could have been subscription suicide. On the same night the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra announced its 2008-09 season, with an ensuing plea for regular attendees to please renew their seats, the symphony fired its wind players (at least for the weekend) and replaced the percussionists with a troupe of modern dancers.

Here's hoping this gutsy multidisciplinary move pays off for both the symphony and BosmaDance, the Northern Virginia company that joined the orchestra's string musicians onstage Saturday at Schlesinger Concert Hall at Northern Virginia Community College. The choreographer, Meisha Bosma, and music director, Kim Allen Kluge, introduced their collaborative half of the program together. Both wore black, though he was in formal attire and she in warm-up sweats. Once the music started, their aesthetics (almost) matched.

Choreographing to classical music is tricky territory for modern dancers, who often come up with a concept first and find suitable music later. Bosma worked well with what Kluge gave her and has potential to do even better.

The company opened its shared half of the program with a campy take on a Renaissance canzone by Gabrieli, evoking the irreverent spirit, but not quite the sublime irony, of choreographer Mark Morris. Bosma and Leah Wrobel followed by dancing to the aria of Villa-Lobos's "Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5." Their forceful yet elegant duet wisely avoided Latin cliches, instead projecting a universal sense of passion and loss. The closing 20-minute work, to Michael Tippett's Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli, flew by regardless of the tempo. The eight dancers moved serenely whenever Corelli's stately theme emerged, but they struggled once 20th-century dissonance took over.

On the podium, Kluge was auditioning for his own place in the dance company. His generous gestures may have entertained the audience but they short-changed the musicians, who sometimes had difficulty coming in together and cleanly articulating phrases.

-- Rebecca J. Ritzel