A Look at Solitude in ‘Five Women’

The soloists who made up “Five Women Dancing” at the Luckman Theater Sunday afternoon all seemed to be gently exploring solitude. They were tentative, worried, reflective, distraught--all in different keys, with varying degrees of success.

Dancing their own solos, Loretta Livingston and Karen Goodman were masters of craft and technique. In “Drift” and “The Stray,” Livingston was willowy but exacting, like curling smoke or a Baroque fountain. Goodman’s “Earthling,” in which she never stands up, was more gymnastic, a leisurely paced exercise in insect-like extensions and prettified yoga poses. Her “Brief Space” was incredibly slight--antics in a skeleton suit on a bare stage.

Nancy Colahan danced the works of others and was fortunate in both her choices and her own gifts. In Christopher Pilafian’s rhapsodic solo “Anemone,” Colahan was exquisitely and tenderly fraught to onstage cello accompaniment by Gianna Abondola. She was equally compelling in Peggy Baker’s “Why the Brook Wept,” as Ophelia, all quirky angles, strained smoothness and fractured emotions. Again, she had superb onstage accompaniment, this time Stephen Kelly playing a John Cage piano score.

Claudia Lopez was an odd addition to this program, since her “Clear Connection” was earnest but not yet ready for prime time. The same might be thought of Winnifred Harris from her “Whispers Left Her With Nothing.” Through recorded text, pantomime and the occasional danced steps, Harris set herself up as a spurned woman haunted by gossip.

At the end, nudity was probably intended to represent vulnerability, but her style was so exactly that of a conventional stripper, it was hard to read her naked body as anything but a startling, confusing display. Exploring the territory between art dance and striptease, Harris ended up on the wrong side of the border.