Zvidance performing DABKE at ADF 2015. Photo: Grant Halverson.

One of the coolest things about attending the entire American Dance Festival is that the thinking of the festival planners begins to reveal itself as you go from show to show. Director Jodee Nimerichter and her team have made some telling juxtapositions this year. For example, the last DPAC show involved Bill T. Jones’ examination of a Jewish woman’s experience during WWII; for the current show at Reynolds, a Jewish choreographer has based a work on a folk tradition; and tomorrow, the Ballet Folklorico Cutumba from Cuba is scheduled to perform in the Carolina Theatre. What a smart, smooth segue among very different dance works.

Tonight, Zvi Gotheiner’s Zvidance company will reprise DABKE in Reynolds. It is only 50 minutes long, but has ideas and emotions enough to sustain a much longer work.

From my review published today on CVNC.org with the title Unadulterated Dancing: Zvidance’s Whirlwind Dabke at ADF:

But Gotheiner is a contemporary choreographer. He draws from the folk tradition; he does not merely repeat it. The line breaks apart into numerous stunning variations on the theme by one, two or more of the dancers. They maintain the beat, but with such freedom! The upper bodies are incredibly loose and active, the arms stretched and whirling into the sky or caressing the ground, the heads turning and tossing on the pliant necks. Between stamping the beats, the legs kick and lash.

READ THE REST HERE.

Zvidance performing DABKE at ADF 2015. Photo: Grant Halverson.