by Shannon Kunkel
Daily Lobo
From strutting their stuff on the catwalk to enduring push-ups in basic training, the dancers of "Maratooni" do it all.
The dance series "Flying Low" at Rodey Theatre this weekend will feature the U.S. premiere of "Maratooni" and dances choreographed by UNM graduate students.
While living in Finland, Julliard-trained guest artist Jonathan Kane created a contemporary dance he titled "Maratooni," meaning "marathon" in Finnish. Seven dancers perform sequences of intricate, harmonized maneuvers on chairs. The performers mimic one another as they run in place while seated in the chairs. They also emulate the movements of runway models and soldiers.
Throughout the piece, another performer runs up and down the stage to the rhythm of the percussion.
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"The piece was originally choreographed to 'In C' by Terry Riley, a minimalist piece of music in which a pianist repeats a note: clink, clink, clink," Kane said.
This sound, he said, gave rise to the idea of the runner.
"The runner maintains a continual pulse, moving, moving," Kane said. "Energy is always flowing through the piece. This way, even when the dancers are sitting, there's still that tempo that we can really visualize and feel."
Kane said the piece has been reset with music from a live performance in Finland.
"Resetting the piece has been much harder then I had originally intended it to be, especially in this amount of time," Kane said.
Kane has been on campus since late January preparing the piece with UNM dance students. While his experience with the students was positive, he said it has also been tricky.
"The piece is so detailed that either it's done right or it completely falls apart," Kane said. "We still have to work on building their confidence and keep going over it and over it until it works."
Kane said he wants audiences to watch the performance and evaluate it for themselves without him explaining how they should feel about what they see.
"There isn't a specific story behind this piece," he said. "Everyone seems to find their own meaning in it."
In addition to "Maratooni," audiences will see a number of performances choreographed by students at UNM. Students Angi Campbell, Lauren Figg, Blythe Kanis, Jeanne Snodgrass and Michele Torino choreographed pieces for "Flying Low."
Torino will dance a short solo entitled "Incumbent" set to music by B-Çla Fleck and Edgar Meyer.
"I call myself a modern dancer, but I am very influenced by a variety of movement forms including African dance, yoga and contact improvisation," Torino said.
Figg's piece, "A Restoration," is about dismantling an outer facade to access what is underneath. Figg, Elizabeth Battarbee and Jessica Trembly will perform the dance to the music of Sigur R¢s, Boards of Canada and Richard James.
Flying Low
Rodey Theatre
Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm
Sunday at 6 pm
$12 general admission, $8 for UNM faculty, staff and seniors, $6 for students
