Jeremy Nelson and Luis Lara. - Danspace Project at St. Marks Church in-the-Bowery, New York, New York - dance reviews

Dance Magazine, Jan, 1996 by Alice Naude

Jeremy Nelson's dancing is pure joy to watch. His explosive leaps are punctuated with clean, precise gesture. Every roll of the shoulder integrates with movement through his elbow, wrist, and fingers. A former Stephen Petronio Company member, this New Zealander clearly loves visceral, athletic dance, but frames it with accessible structures and surprising, evocative movement.

His unaffected, forthright style was the high point of the concert he shared with Venezuelan Luis Lara which launched Global Exchange, a series that features international artists. Four loosely connected works - two choreographed by each performer - were staged in front of Lara's striking sets, There was a cascading backdrop of white sheets of paper attacked together with popsicle sticks. And blocks of ice, glowinq orbs, and papier-mache animals created an intriguing atmosphere. But these visuals and much of Lara's own choreography seemed overly stylized and at odds with Nelson's more lyrical, emotional work.

Lara creates mood on a grand scale. The evening's program, titled A Skeleton in the Closet," opened on the Venezuelan performer known as Daffy Duck, whose naked torso and hoop skirt provide the screen onto which slides of textiles and art are projected. In HHH (1995) Lara and Esteban Cardenas, wearing white hoods and white knickers, dance with heads locked together. And in Taking the Pulse (1995) bursts of energetic dancing alternate with moments when the dancers stand still as if waiting for something to happen.

Nelson's scale is more personal. In his solo Looking Through the Keyhole (1994) every jump and turn seems connected to an interior, emotional world. In Harlickin' Rejected (1995) four dancers explore space with large wheeling gestures and some riveting partnering. Lara and Nelson dance beautifully together. Moves that resemble martial arts, with leaps at and over each other, transmit tension and tenderness. Lara and Nelson are eventually joined by Dana D'Alesandro, a dynamo of motion, and Mia Lawrence, whose self-assured dancing provides peaceful counterpoise. Her duet with Nelson was full of surprises and odd lifts. It was a work of genuine feeling, grand vision, and generous spirit.