New Shoes, Old Souls Dance Company. - Cowell Theater, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, California - dance reviews

Dance Magazine, April, 1998 by Rita Felciano

JANUARY 22-24, 1998 COWELL THEATER, FORT MASON CENTER, SAN FRANCISCO REVIEWED BY RITA FELCIANO

New Shoes, Old Souls Dance Company's latest concert was as inspiring as it was frustrating. Now in its fifth year, the ensemble sports a splendid set of dancers over the age of forty. But unlike some other groups that also work with not-very-young dancers, these performers are professionals, and the majority of them are still involved in the field in one form or another. So the level of technical expertise for the most part is quite high. Additionally, seeing wrinkles and salt-and-pepper hair brings a welcome fresh breeze from outside the theater onto the stage.

Nevertheless, these are a motley group of ballet, modern, and jazz dancers. Whatever cohesion they have as an ensemble comes more from having lived for some time than from a common once language. At this stage of their lives, character shines through. Even those whose spines have somewhat stiffened communicate with an intense but self-confident commitment not often seen in those still anxious about how they are perceived. David McNaughton's turns and elevation are not what they were, but their full-bodied defiance of gravity is still exhilarating; Katherine Warner's pointe work is frighteningly fierce while Joan Lazarus's sunny soft-shoe exuberance could not be beat by a twelve-year-old. Even in her maturity, the sylph shines through in Sarah Oppenheimers port de bras. And then, of course, there is the astounding Priscilla Regalado, whose integrated and liquid expressiveness results in a focused intensity impossible in a younger dancer.

My frustration with this concert stemmed from a lack of good choreography. Several of the pieces were inspired by touchy-feely thinking and such body disciplines as yoga and mind-body centering techniques. There is nothing wrong with using these disciplines as a starting point, but inspiration that is not translated into viable structure is of little use onstage.

Two works, however, proved memorable. In Split 'n Knot, performed by Caroline Carvajal and Sulpicio Mariano, Warner examined the duet form with the woman as the primary active force. With thoughtfully modulated phrasing, the work's angularity owes some debt to Warner's years with Alonzo King's Lines Contemporary Ballet, but it rang true with the kind of fresh insight one always hopes to find in new choreography. Lazarus's affectionate tribute to Broadway, the strongly on-the-beat Rock House delighted in showing off its eight performers bursting into soft-shoe routines and sparkling with solos. At one point a seemingly endless diagonal of dancers kept slinking across the stage, showing us what by this point we already knew. This is a splendid set of mature and individual voices. Now they need music to make them sing.