Reviews

FORT WORTH – Dallas Black Dance Theatre took Scott Theatre by storm Friday night, in a high-octane program that varied from elegiac to sassy.

Throughout, dancers moved with a silky grace, even in the most daring and energetic sections.

The program opened with Ben Stevenson's elegiac End of Time and ended with Bruce Woods' sexy Smoke.

Allyne D. Gartrell's emotional The Lesson shifted from somber to touching, as Patrick Smith recalled his grandmother's love and her hands that played the tambourine.

Hope Boykin dared to step onto Balanchine territory in In-ter-pret, using the same Tchaikovsky's Serenade in Strings used in Balanchine's groundbreaking Serenade. Five women and two men in white spiral, jump and bumped into one another with cheeky exuberance. One of the funniest moments comes as Tchaikovsky's music soars and Richard Freeman and Christopher McKenzie give each other a high-five.

In Ray Mercer's intense Pulse, the simple pounding of a heartbeat was interspaced with the stirring voices of James Horner, James Murphy and Nina Simone. Men seem to rule the world, but once women arrive, it's a tug of war between the sexes, and it's a tossup as to who wins.

It would be hard to choose the highlight of the evening – Christopher Huggins' frenzied Chaos or Mr. Woods' snappy Smoke.

The first featured 14 dancers in black hoods pawing the ground in unison to repetitive music suggestive of Carmina Burana. The action was controlled frenzy, with Mr. Gartrell, in red cloak, dancing like a demon.

Smoke, set to Ray Charles hits, was vintage Bruce Wood, sophisticated in the clever, tight grouping of 12 dancers waving fannies with a mocking air and then letting loose with wild abandon.

Margaret Putnam is a Richardson-based writer who covers dance.

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