Richardson Brings Eye Candy, Grace to Complexions

This article originally appeared in the Culture section of Bloomberg News on November 21, 2008.

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The multiethnic, multicultural Complexions Contemporary Ballet, which opened its two-week season at New York's Joyce Theater on Tuesday, is devastatingly handsome and just as slick.

Founded in 1994 by former Alvin Ailey stars Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, the company is unlikely to change your life or lend you piercing insight into others' lives. So many sophisticated dance fans give it a pass (as they do several other highly popular troupes, such as Pilobolus Dance Theater).

However, Richardson, the company's leading man, is a real artist. Thought of as a modern dancer, he's comfortable with classical ballet as well.

Desmond Richardson, the star and co-founder of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, rehearses in the studio on Aug. 30, 2008. The troupe opened its two week season at New York's Joyce theater and will perform through Nov. 30. Photographer: Dah-len/Complexions Contemporary Ballet via Bloomberg News

Richardson's dancing has subtle qualities, including infinitely varied texture and the ability to animate the space he inhabits like a piece of moving sculpture. He also manages to convey authentic emotion through even the slightest choreographic scripts. So there's more to him than meets the eye, though it must be admitted he's also a hunk: tall, long-limbed, and exquisitely proportioned, with musculature to die for and lines whose default mode is perfect harmony.

A highlight of the current season is "I Will Not Be Broken," an extended solo with unusual accompaniment that Rhoden, the group's chief choreographer, created for Richardson, his muse. It's about surviving -- triumphing, even -- after one has hit bottom. Dramatically matched by Negro spirituals spoken and sung by actress S. Epatha Merkerson, it's also augmented by a duet for two other dancers who seem to be figments of Rhoden's memory.

Electrifying Presence

Rhoden writhes on and around a narrow wooden bench, making agonized gestures of pain, then eventually rises, reaching to the heavens, as if to reclaim his faith and, thus, his own salvation. Merkerson's self-contained yet still electrifying presence as she moves among the dancers makes the piece a theatrical event as much as a choreographic one.

The only other worthy piece on the program was Igal Perry's new "Constructs for 4," a graceful and gracious quartet for a woman and three men. It provides a softness, fluidity, and musical phrasing that Rhoden's choreography desperately lacks and some interesting passages of male-male partnering when the group work splinters into a double duet.

Velvety Touch

What made "Constructs" memorable and not simply pleasant was the dancing of Gary W. Jeter II, who might be a young clone of the mature Richardson. Perry gave him a long solo that contrasted difficult ballet steps, such as double turns in the air, with modern dance's melting falls to the floor, all of which Jeter executed with a velvety touch and modest manner. The company is blessed to have him.

Opening night also featured two over-long, over-populated pieces by Rhoden -- "Routines" and "Rise" -- and a brief one, "Ave Maria." The last was simply vulgar. The first two revealed Rhoden's weaknesses to an embarrassing degree. He arranges his dancers in simple geometric patterns that are cumulatively stultifying.

He has them move continuously with aggressive force as if at war with the world, even when, as in "Rise," encouraged by the music of U2, they're presumably ecstatic with the joy of life. He seems ignorant of the nature of flesh, with its sensuous pliancy. This alone, in a choreographer, is very bad news.

Through Nov. 30 at 175 Eighth Ave. Information: +1-212-242- 0800; http://www.joyce.org.

© 2008 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.