Post:Ballet’s Dekkers proves ‘Do Be’ project worth doing
What emerged was a roisterous, engaging, audacious, somewhat overextended suite for nine dancers that, despite Dekkers’ claim that there’s a narrative flow, seems to acquire its continuity through the omnipresence of the Living Earth Show, made up of guitarist Travis Andrews and percussionist Andy Meyerson.
Dekkers had planned “Do Be” as a collaboration with this outstanding duo, and even when the piece occasionally lags, their beat goes on.
Only the final movement, “Pasturing II,” is new; the rest have appeared in Post:
The dancers (Cora Cliburn, Aidan De Young, Gabriel Mata, Vanessa Thiessen) who emerge individually from the fog in “Pasturing I” with a score by Jacob Cooper don’t seem to know each other as they go through their perfunctory lifts, shoulder rolls and descents to the floor, all to the jolting sound of crushed glass.
Rather daringly, at the end of the evening, Dekkers rechoreographs this section to a different Cooper score, with all the dancers, and now they look like an ensemble.
Amid the balloons, Andrews launches “Row, row, your boat,” but when a birthday cake is wheeled out, it all turns farcical, and birthday boy Charles Martin ends up in the buttercream.
Jonathan Pfeffer, he finds himself pursued by what look like four cabanas on wheels, while Robby Gilson’s animations, projected on the floor, release a torrent of activity.
Christopher Cerrone’s attractive score for “Double Happiness” accompanies newcomer Rachel Coats, in tulle skirt, rendering a ballet solo (Dekkers also makes dances for ballet companies).
Company Creative Director Christian Squires designed the performance space, marked by an internal curtain and hanging lampshades.