First Person Review--The "Red Swan" At Links Hall Shows Dancer Asimina Chermos at Her Best (December 17, 2007)

From the wooden dance floor that was there for all of Chicago's contemporary dancers to perform in for over 30 years---Links Hall---"The Red Swan" was more than I had expected to see in a typical contemporary dance show. It is not just dancing....but it is the feelings that come from dancing. And Asimina Chermos, the main star of the show, showed why she is the best of the "newest" dancers out there.

She is probably the most famous Chicago area contemporary dancer around. But I also liked the fact that she also mixes in ballet---perhaps the best ballet I had seen from any contemporary dancer.

As a contemporary/performance art dancer myself, I had appreciated the fact that this was the first live contemporary dance show I ever seen in this dance space.

It was like you are in the original Blues Brothers movie as the loud noise of the CTA "L" train passes by occasionally near Links Hall, but most of the dancers and the audience didn't see to mind.

This venue on Clark and Sheffield, right in the heart of Wrigleyville on the North Side of Chicago and a long "stone's throw" away from Wrigley Field, looks almost like a loft room, but it was the place where hundreds of contemporary dancers create their independent dance shows ranging from Field Sessions to Poonie's Cabaret.

The "Red Swan" basically is a dance project by Asimina herself....the show's premise is to create a movement-based homage to famous ballet dancer Margot Fonteyn, although with contemporary twists....taking care not to segregate classical ballet (that Ms. Fonteyn is famous for) from contemporary dance. The result is a multifacted dance.... that is, you see some ballet, then contemporary, then you see some ballet again, and so forth.

The "Red Swan" dance show was in three distinct parts, and I used this to create my own comments related to the show the show.

PART I

Well, as the house opened to low lights, dancing had already started---something like a "pre-show", as I sat down on stage. It was a full house of about 90 people after about 19 minutes into the show.

This first part was what I call a contact improvisation "warmup dance" greeting the crowd. (Contact improvisation is a type of contemporary dance where at least two dancers communicate through movement, but focusing on touching in various areas, and reacting to those sensations.)

In this improvisation, I saw 2 men and 4 ladies converge, converse, contract and expand.

Out comes Asimina......away from the contact improvisation circle, doing a handstand, and going back to the contact improvisation circle.

They are doing what I call call a "sixsome", a type of orgy based on the sexual intimacy position called "threesome".

Then, the six break up into groups of 2 people, for a total of 3 groups, for approximately 4-5, changing poses constantly, and each group fluctuates in a different pose

in the changes.

Then, 2 dancers in black--one man, one woman--separate from the contact improvisation pack for only about 25 seconds before they come back in the "blob".

Asimina then pulls one of the black-donned dancers as if it were a cart, and then, Asimina takes the lead, giving the red swan ballet tutu to one of the red-donned dancers, and then Asimin falls on the floor again.

The swan-tutu seems to be like and endless moving prop as it is passed from one dancer...to the next...and back to that dancer again.

A knock is heard from the east side of the room. Asimina responds and opens up the escape door to the dance studio, and it is a tall man who was in winter garb. After he takes off the winter garb, he is in khaki pants and a tee shirt. I was anticipating that he was going to be in a black leotard and a ballet shirt because this work is in honor of

Margot Fonteyn, but this bizarre garb tells me that this is going to be a contemporary reaction to Margot Fonteyn....not a strict "homage" to it.

After Asimina walks up and stops at the end of stage right, going into a ballet move called a posé (where the free leg is in tendu en avant, in front of the back leg, and one of the arms is forward and straight out, and the other arm is straight back but more to the side), the tall man runs up to Asimina so that he is behind her very closely...he invites her to reciprocate. After a few seconds, she is invited and then he throws Asimina right into a ballet lift where she splits the legs while her back is arched (this is called a grand jété cambré profonde assis), and then, he makes her land and she goes down the the floor in modern dance stag movements (A stag is a folding of the legs in opposite  directions, which is very common in jazz dance). Then, she

gets up, runs back to stage R.

This was in homage to Margot Fonteyn's pas de deux dances

(or "dance for two", or "duet"), where she was lifted by the lead dancer so many times into positions like the fish dive. Regrettably, no fish dive (which is called pas poisson in French---literally, it means "fish step) poses were done in the show but the grand jeté lift was enough.

Then the dance sequence is repeated several times, sometimes with some variations.

One of the variations was quite comedic is the

"reverse role" variation, where the tall man goes up into his posé, and Asimina pretends to be a male ballet dancer. She approaches, she invites contact with the man, and then she was thinking of lifting him up. She starts but she stops and refuses to lift him in jest....causing a slight laugh in the audience.

PART II

Here, a gray/silver partition permeates stage right, and

focus is on the ballet barre of the studio. Here, Asimina dons the red swan tutu and makes a slightly strict homage to Margot Fonteyn.

A slide projector is used to create something like a sea picture on the south wall as a backdrop, yet it also allows a shadow silouette of Asimina when the projector light shines on her.

The part starts off with Asimina with the ballet barre on the right. Several barre exercises are demonstrated as the music slowly starts----including a

développé (done several times; this is a ballet move where the free leg slides up on the other leg that is already in relévé, or on half-point, and then the free leg is extended out straight to the side so it

is horizontal to the floor), ronds de jambe (leg circles

with the leg straight and usually not letting the toe leave the floor), and various cambré positions (leaning positions with the upper body so you lean forward, or back, or to the side).

Next, she goes away from the partition to do centre work

(so-called because you use the center of the stage to do ballet movements). The swan tutu was the main focus of her

work as the lighting turned semi-dark but allow the brightness of the red tutu to show her great dance skills.

The music is described as mainly white noise with a voice doing some syllabic spoken word, especially she runs around in pas couru en pointe (little walking steps on point or on toes) as she runs around. The bizarre part was when during her pas couru sequence, she seems to tap on every pas couru, a feat not usually seen in lady ballet dancers. That is what makes Asimina so different than even the best female ballet dancers. As she does those running steps in several series of circles on the floor, the music increases

volume as the spoken word voice goes away, leading to continous electronic taps, and as she leaves the stage, the electronic taps (probably for reactionary purposes) continue to the loudest apex....and then, as soon as the music began....the taps suddenly stop.

PART III

Then, a guitarist comes in for his improvised music, as Asimina changes into a jazz dance garb in all black, including leotard tights. Most of the time, the guitar music is improvised, with sudden stops, sudden accelerations, brief runs of various numbers of notes, and a lot of distortion techniques.

This time, she does another solo dance, but much differently this time. There are elements of ballet, but more of a combination of jazz, contemporary, and modern all at the same time.

I am thinking that Asimina was honoring jazz dancer Christy Lane more than Margot Fonteyn, but I also see homages to Debbie Allen and probably Twyla Tharp and Katherine Durham here. She does a lot more floor work in the part, doing various amounts of stunt falls and stag body rolls, and several times, she goes into the "swan" pose on the floor...that is, a common ballet move where one leg is folded and flexed in front or in the back, and the other leg is out in front, straight, and the upper body flexes forward so that the head touches near the toes, and the arms are forward and outstreched, also straight.

In the middle of the dance, she does a arabesque penchée

(or "leaning arabesque"), probably the best one ever that I had seen from any ballet dancer.

The show lasted 54 minutes but it was the best contemporary dance show ever because I had seen a wide variety of dances. Asimina Chremos was not recognizable to me until I saw her in the John Cage Musicircus in Chicago in October 2007, which I myself performed in as a pianist....but after seeing "The Red Swan", now I know why I need to recognize this dancer so highly.