EAST VILLAGE DANCE PROJECT, LA MAMA MOVES! 2012
MAY 20, 2012
by R. MacKenzie

My cousins and I used to call it “getting washing-machined”. That’s when you misjudged how the wave was going to break and either didn’t catch it nor dive through in time, and so ended up getting smashed down into the hard sand, salt water going up your nose, sand in your bathing suit and at the mercy of the water’s ferocious strength. That was just one of those recognizable moments in Martha Tornay’s concert of her students of The East Village Dance Project. That dance, Soaked to the Talking Heads Same As It Ever Was, was set on 9 children, one in a concert of 10 dances ranging from classical pointe work to authentic jazz in the East Village Dance Project’s annual concert presented by the LaMama Moves! Dance Festival and GOH Productions on East 4th St on May 20th, 2012.

She had those kids looking like waves rolling in and out, side to side, then suddenly they were a fountain, then a river, then somehow the little boy gets to dive in and surf right there in front of our eyes. Costumes included swimming goggles, bathing suits, and wonderful hoop tutus made of aquarium print shower curtains. This piece is really fun: The first time I saw it I laughed, the second I cried, the third, I laughed and cried.

This delicious program included a huge range of dancers in age (4-18), dance styles and skill levels, but the key to its sheer quality is the sure direction of Ms. Tornay. The dancers showed some excellent technique and they have obviously been encouraged to make individual choices and contributions. Then they have been set up within a structure that leaves them the freedom to shine at all levels. Martha provides rocking and elegant musical choices, bright and fitting costumes, but most importantly, the kids have been given permission to have a lot of fun. The teen company developed a piece over 8 months with completely original choreography, exploring in directions and making choices entirely their own, producing Alienation Affect which was accompanied by electric guitar played by a young man named Jack Lazar.

Trained with Mme. Gabriela Darvash, amongst others, Ms Tornay has taught and danced at Bates Festival for many years, but her crowning jewel is the amazing group of dancers she teaches year round in their lovely new home at #55 Ave C Studios. Her choreographies are surprising, human and entertaining, appropriate to the children’s skill levels and so charming! Lucas Rollings-Page, Victoria Roberts-Weirzbowski and Kiva Dawson, as well as the Teen Company, all made dances, every one a little gem. Lucas’ musical choice was a lovely ballad by Bobby Womack with the refrain of “If you don’t want my love, If you don’t need my love,…Give it back to me.” The girls in his dance were delicate, gentle creatures who I imagined barely discovering the tragedies and thrills of love. The girls in Ms. Dawson’s dance were skilled, sassy and frisky in the humorous jazz number Hot Honey Rag. Don Q-ish, music by Leon Minkus, was the first mini ballet on the program, a redux featuring Safouane Chestnut, our surfer from Soaked, as the prince and a sweet girl, earnest and committed, Gianna Bernard as his partner.  The costumes and choreography were excellent, the dancers joyous, (India Rogers has a radiant smile in both Don Q-ish and Bal-led) the variations charming, especially when it’s the gang of really little ballerinas with giant velvet flowers to offer, dance with, jump over…

The second ballet Bal-led, to all tunes by Led Zeppelin, was a great original idea. After seeing it I wonder why Martha isn’t already world famous and doing this season at the Joyce. The piece glides through several of your favorite classic Led Zeppelin songs with group variations, marvelous duets with Afinatou Thiam and Chloe London partnering Bailey Edwards and Lucas Rollings-Page (who each take rocking percussive solos), the incorporation of a love-seat, quartets and, towards the end, a magnificent solo by Talia Vilaplana that takes one’s breath away. Students in EVDP, from tiny to graduates, are variously stunning, graceful, elegant, self-possessed and even at times funky, but I’ve never seen a dancer who lives the dance in such a way that it is like a part of her skin like Talia does. This girl is destined to always be a stunning dancer, her technique, musicality and emotional commitment all add up to be so very magnetic.