Their folklore dances into the present
Cast as a Native American shaman or seer, Doug Scholfield used the smoke from a clump of burning sage to consecrate the stage of the Tom Bradley Theatre on Thursday -- opening night not only of a four-performance engagement by American Indian Dance Theatre but also of the newly reconstituted and upgraded Los Angeles Theatre Center downtown.
Throughout Act 1, that stage remained a sacred space, with Scholfield seeming to call dancers from many tribal cultures out of his memory. Traditional dances from the northern Plains, the eastern woodlands, the western pueblos reminded the audience of the richness and diversity of indigenous America and of the unique achievement of this 20-year-old company.
Instead of full-scale suites, company director Hanay Geiogamah presented a kind of dream cavalcade, and if the ridiculously skimpy program booklet (essentially an LATC promotional brochure) provided only a hint of what was going on, even an urban Angeleno can tell a buffalo from an eagle.
Lee Goodman Jr., one of the company’s most powerful soloists, dominated a scene of ritual combat, and high-stepping Jocy Bird was featured in two hoop dances, elaborately costumed in Act 1 and stripped to basic black in Act 2 for an intricate, stamina-testing duet with Bud Day.
Indeed, the costuming for all of Act 2 proved anything but traditional: plenty of feathers, of course (many of them dyed in bold fluorescent colors), but also baseball caps (sometimes worn backward), T-shirts, denim, hooded sweat shirts, even street shoes. The dancing, too, reflected contemporary American street style, with gymnastic virtuosity incorporated into powwow showpieces and with moonwalking evident among the borrowings from pop culture.
Some people hate the garishness and impurity of modern Indian America, but Geiogamah finds in it not only vitality and creativity but also an affirmation of the old values. So he allowed room for goofing off in Act 2 as well as some furiously intense competition solos at levels of speed and intricacy you’d expect only from krumping.
Danced in loose, casual clothes (including cutoffs), the final piece presented Indian-ness as something innate -- ancient but still growing -- not dependent on costume spectacle but proudly evident in every step.
Live flute, drum and vocal music accompanied many of the pieces, but sweet recorded ballads by rock composer Robbie Robertson turned up here and there, reinforcing the interplay of past and present distinguishing the performance.
Lots of world dance directors pretend that folklore ended about the time their grandparents were born -- that the dances, costumes and sensibility of their companies must stay picturesquely backdated. But folklore is happening right now -- garish and impure, perhaps, but no less the expression of cultural values than in bygone eras. And it’s important as well as exciting that performing artists are chronicling the changes and celebrating the moment in memorable programs such as this.
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American Indian Dance Theatre
Where: Theatre 1, Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St., downtown L.A.
When: 8 tonight and
3 p.m. Sunday
Price: $28
Contact: (323) 461-3673 or www.thenewlatc.com.
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