RIOULT DANCE NY
Program B

Joyce Theatre
175 Eighth Ave
NY NY
21-26 June 2016

Artistic Director and Choreographer: Pascal Roult

Company: Catherine Cooch, Brian Flynn, Chais Haines, Jere Hunt, Melanie Kimmel, Corinna Lee Nicholson, Michael Spencer Phillips, Sara Elizabeth Seger, Sabatino A. Verlezza, Holt Walborn


Exquisite. That is the word that best describes RIOULT DANCE NY. The dancers are wonderful and expressive with an easy grace in their strength that looks effortless. The choreography is fresh and dazzling.

There are two programs being presented by Rioult Dancy NY this year at the Joyce. I saw Program B which consisted of Dream Suite, Polymorphous, Duets Sacred & Profane, and Bolero.

Dream Suite is “a contemporary take on Romanticism….with a palette inspired by Marc Chagall” according to the program description. Which it is, but it is so much more. Light moves and changes along with the choreography creating not only color, but shaping of the dancers bodies and their configurations. The fluidity of the changing color is in such synchronicity with the choreography it becomes another dancer in the piece. Jim French is the lighting designer who created this masterful integration of design.

Light is also a major component in Rioult Dance NY’s debut piece, Polymorphous. This time it is David Finley who uses light, along with Harry Feiner’s set design and Brian Clifford Beasley’s projected animation, creating additional “dancers” of light and shadow that move with the human dancers. It’s an amazing piece.

Dances Sacred & Profane is a selection of duets, all of which are wonderful, but the climax of the evening is definitely Bolero. It is difficult to believe these are human bodies, the movement so fluidly changes from robotic and percussive to legato and sensual. The twirling and flowing becomes almost Busby Berkeley-like in its design pictures, but with far superior dance skills!

All in all, a glorious evening of dance.

- Jean Tait -