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R E C E N T R E V I E W SZendora
nature and nurture at Chen Dance Center
March 10, 2011
Nancy Zendora took Himalayan Art from the Rubin Museum as inspiration for her new Demons of Our Bewilderment. It premiered March 3-5, 2011 at Chen Dance Center. Marie Baker-Lee performed the solo, Part 1:The Spiral Universe, wrapping a smock-like cloak around her (by Sascha). It acts as an impetus for her descent into a whirlpool, the archetypal and fatal spiral. She draws imaginary forces around her with her finger and then ends on the floor, legs up in a position of least resistance, like an infant. This potentially unbecoming pose evokes elemental emotions; ultimately, "Spiral" traps us too in its indelible, compelling theater and the music of Jose Luis Greco.
In Part 2: Demons of Our Bewilderment Baker-Lee returns with Stephanie Schwartz and Dawn Yuster. The later two support in modern steps and butohesque open-mouthed expressions, making Baker-Lee’s conviction all the more evident. (She has worked with Zendora for twenty years.) Nevertheless, their six lyrical arms swimming in bell sleeves wonderfully evoke undersea life. They kneel low to the ground and sway in purplish, diaphanous dresses. Then, ending with fantastical land creatures Schwartz and Yuster convincingly crawl forward like a tandem pair of cats. Baker-Lee stands behind them, pointing a finger at us. Their phallic formation and the scolding is at once giddy and sobering. We have intermission to come to our senses.zendora group otherworldly...
The three dancers look otherworldly, dressed in chiffon with small tassels for the next Landscape with Visitors. It invokes an alien community, to gongs and didgeridoo in Mike Fisher’s and Korean traditional music. They carry and drop pebbles; the kind used to mark visits to a grave. Baker-Lee leads, setting them on a circular path. They glide with the sound, which includes water. The silent suggestion is that we slow down and see them take the longest route to arrive. Finally, they sit at the side as Zendora enters about halfway through. She brings an element of delight when she solos in small circles in the center of a splash of gobo light dots, like a flower form. She wears a great headpiece (by Ralph Lee) with small white evenly-spaced diamond shapes that reiterate the lights. She moves with satisfying counterpoint and contrasts the others’ muted colors in black with one long red glove. Her hands are then puppets conversing with each other.
These ritualistic, atavistic dances invoke a curious combination of images. They match the musical phrases to a fault, but Zendora’s fluidity overcomes this. The highlights I've described do imagine otherworldly visitors - nature, ocean, animals, and the sacredness and vulnerability of life.
Zendora also cites Nazca rock carvings as inspiration. They are monumental incisions depicting animal life, drawn over many years. She is not alone among choreographers drawing with bodies in time and space. The carvings speak of permanence, and there is a steadfastness and obstinacy to the Zendora dances. This is especially so considering her 34 years choreographing over eighty dances inspired by Eastern and modern forms. It is one survival strategy for art amidst the distractions of urban contemporary life.
- Lori Ortiz, Readingdance.com
Review of Dance on the EDGE
at the Regina Theatre, Uppsala, Sweden on November 29th, 2008A dancing reality in the play of light and shadow.
In the gap between the visible and the invisible I find myself, when I struggle to see Dance in the piece by Nancy Zendora. The work is named Cartouche, and is choreographed to the music by composer Morton Feldman. I struggle in vain until I realize that I have to observe the play of light, which like reflections of a water is projected as a backdrop. In a flash, the dancers movements starts to resonate with the rapid movements of highlights on the backdrop, and the dance becomes magic. The slow, minimalistic moves made by the dancer seem to trig the pulse of light in an optic illusion produced by my willing act of interpretation.
It makes sense, as if I have entered the space of Zendora. In the following pieces I focus on how light and shadow produce spatiality and form in the performance. In the Voice of Light the dance takes place in a circle of light projected by a spotlight, and a small lantern in the form of a pyramid works as a counter point. Shining small pyramid / person big enlightened. It's like a Sufi mystery, and the dancer swings around, as if she confirms the hypothesis.
In the third and last piece New Flight I can only recall the mask, left on the stage and still shining from some kind of light. If it is from the inside, or only the reflections of a spotlight I can't figure out. It ought not to be, but the poetic truth is, that the light comes from within.
What kind of dance is this. It is invisible to me when I try to look straight at it, but still it is poetic and strong. It is unrecognizable, it is not real, but surreal.
- Kurt W Nyberg
R E V I E W E X C E R P T S
"For twenty years, Nancy Zendora has been her own kind of classicist, making exquisite, luminous dances that are quietly alluring." Amanda Smith, DANCE MAGAZINE
"Even when Nancy Zendora's dancers move swiftly, they look still--as if they're suspended in amber, or as if a wind has suddenly dropped and we see and hear everything better." Deborah Jowitt, VILLAGE VOICE
"Zendora's images are so beautifully and clearly seen because of their context--the way they appear to be suspended in solution. Her slowly evolving, minimalist work has the spare look of delicate brushwork." Amanda Smith, DANCE MAGAZINE
"She has the gift of quietness; the ability to do very little and allow a spiritual echo to reverberate." Burt Supree, VILLAGE VOICE
"Zendora takes the winding road through a world of visual mystery with ancient echoes." Eva Yaa Asantewaa, VILLAGE VOICE
"Every move counts in Nancy Zendora's best pieces. Compressed and resonant, they seem to radiate from still centers, encapsulating natural and mythic worlds." Susanna Sloat, ATTITUDE MAGAZINE
