Dance concert full of energy

This weekend’s University of Maine spring dance concert displayed more than a variety of energetic, avant-garde and outspoken modern dance pieces. It also aired the concerns of dance coordinator Kim Arrow about the unfortunate but inevitable cutbacks in the UM arts curriculum. In program notes, Arrow reprimanded inspecific powers-that-be for eliminating full-time faculty positions and undervaluing arts education in Maine by “decimating” the dance program.

Modern dance dominated the program this year. Visiting artist John Evans, whose bio also included a dig at the university for faculty cuts, performed “Left Off Center,” a fairly unoriginal abstract creation about a man struggling against outside forces. Several times Evans ran into the wings and was thrust back onto stage by some invisible power. Had he actually been held up by that entity, this long piece might have ended sooner, but, as it was, the most interesting elements of this presentation were the mirror panel which hung on one side of the stage, the lighting and music.

Evans reappeared again in the second half of the program, this time outfitted with bat wings and suspended from the ceiling in ankle braces with dancer Michelle Burgoyne. While smoke and opera filled Hauck Auditorium, the dancers performed a rather comical pas de deux, awkwardly wrapping wings around each other, pulling their bodies upward and writhing against gravity. Though impressively demanding and absurdly entertaining, the piece was muddled and lacked clearly defined movements and intentions.

After the faculty and visiting artists were showcased, dance students brought a new energy to the stage. In a mixture of Paula Abdul pluckiness and sacred dance elegance, Jennifer Mahonen and Katie McLaughlin made a symmetrical and angelic offering with “Silent Thoughts” to chanting Eurosynth music by Enigma. Evoking a similar combination of themes, choreographer Kelly Holyoke created a soulful jazz piece to a selection of music by Take 6, a gospelly a capella group. Glorifying the floor, this WASPy ensemble of vanilla holy-rollers gave a mostly praiseworthy performance.

The most sensationalized contribution to the evening was Joseph Ritsch’s “9 to 5 Divas, Runaway Adagios and Life Interuptis.” Energized with good old college-kid chutzpah, this modern piece tied together contemporary issues such as censorship, gay rights, safe sex, privileged materialism and homelessness in a rush of images that were cartoonish, playful, daring, irreverent and, finally, with a stage full of lifeless bodies, rather barbed.

Eric Gardner danced an engrossing solo called “Goat Rocks,” about origins, discovery, birth and manhood. Throughout much of this futuristic and symbolic number, he interacted with a collapsible stick twice his height by twirling, balancing or gyrating with it, and ultimately reflecting a self-fascination. Yet the piece was not self-indulgent or arcane.

Several from the first ensemble reconvened with other new faces for the final number, “Last Chance to Dance,” a crisp and raucous burst of energy to house music. A closing kick to this walloping night, the finale resounded with the jubilation of dance as a necessary and important art form.