Barney Yates
CLYMOVE AT AILEY April 2, 2024 The name "CLYMOVE" is a cute play on the name of choreographer Clymene Aldinger. Having thoroughly enjoyed her 2023 Inaugural Gala + Spring Season last Spring at Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn, I was easy to recruit for their next gala this April at Ailey Citigroup Theater. The evening honored Sarita Allen, presented two world premieres--one choreographed by JoVonna Parks and one by Clymene Aldinger--and offered us a performance of Elisa Monte's "Pigs and Fishes."
Sarita Allen, the teacher, dance legend, choreographer and Ailey ambassador, was recognized with the Elisa Monte Leadership Legacy Award. CLYMOVE likes to work in trios, which is interesting intellectually, because the triangle is the strongest shape in Geometry. I know a painter who obsesses on them. She even signs her work with them. In Clymene's dances, one of the trio eventually breaks off from the triangle, then returns. So it was in "Hips," the world premiere that ended the evening. Clymene's people are almost always connected, holding onto each other, writhing together and mounting each other's backs. At first the trios are funny, later they are serious. This is a motif repeated in the evening. "Hips" had a commissioned percussive score by DJ Kurt Rambus and a poem by Jessica Lillesand that said, in part, "The world feared her power/So she learned to fear, too." and "She was never just a songbird/She was the vulture, too." It was published in the program, which was good because I could look back on it as I reflected on the piece afterwards.
"Pigs and Fishes," choreographed by Clymene's mentor, Elisa Monte, also earned a big ovation. It brought part 1 of the evening to a serious close with its driving rhythmic score by Glenn Branca and its mix of ample floor work, movement in lines to a pounding beat, and performance by JoVonna Parks as lead dancer.
"Cradle" (my notes call it "fun & funny") and "Rockaway Metamorphosis" (I scribbled "great comic timing by Bridget Cronin"), both choreographed by Clymene Aldinger, recalled back the wit, fun and playful sense of irony that I had appreciated in their gala + Spring Season last year. It's what I enjoy most about this company's work. I respond to their intellectual playfulness and nuanced expression. With clever movement, irony, and unexpected choreography, they open up space for humor, lightness, and critical thinking. The lightheartedness doesn’t diminish the potential for deeper meaning. But it invites audiences to a break from the emotional fatigue of our times.
"WHISKEY NOIR (the next little girl)" contained a well-danced "woman on the verge" solo by its choreographer, Clymene Aldinger, that was worthy of note. A lady in red, lit with a gobo projected on the floor (lighting by Conor Mullligan), looks as if she has taken poison. As a percussive score by Jeanann Dara played, she sipped from trembling hands, then retreated as if from an abusive man, ending on the floor as if quaking in fear. The costume by Keiko Voltaire was beautiful and Aldinger gave us an impressive characterization of a teetering woman. [Barney Yates]
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