DANCE REVIEW : ‘Voices in Motion’ Delivers a Wildly Uneven Program

Along with repeats of previously reviewed Laura Gorenstein pieces, the Sunday afternoon “Voices in Motion” program at the Ivar Theatre paired veteran local choreographer Shirley Martin with relative newcomer Samuel Donlavy. If nothing else, the contrasts proved illuminating.

Formed in 1982, the Martin Dancers welcomes participants from an extremely wide range of ages, physical types, levels of experience and talent. Martin’s suite, “A Dance Medley,” carefully emphasizes what each of them can contribute while no doubt developing their interest in the art and capacity for movement expression.

Some of the group’s poetry readings, gymnastics, percussion and woodwind accompaniments succeed, but this kind of community project is valuable for reasons way beyond the minimal interest it generates on stage. The only question is curatorial: Do the Martin Dancers really belong on a concert-dance showcase?

As co-producer of the “Voices in Motion” series, Donlavy would have been a good person to ask--but he was busy enough presenting four of his pieces and dancing in two of them. His African-American heritage suite “Awakenings” looked like chopped-up out-takes from other choreographers’ works, but the quartet “Heartstrings” displayed genuine fluency along with an ability to create and sustain mood.

His new “Meticulous Gender” began with inventive movement-snapshots of male behavior--everything from gang-style aggression to homosexual embraces. Thereafter the piece grew more abstract and less interesting but it always used its four-man cast with a refined sense of space and movement shape.

Donlavy’s figure-in-the-mirror duet titled “Solo” appeared rambling and unfinished, but he’ll soon have a chance to rework it: The next installment in the “Voices in Motion” series is already set for January.