Dance alumni return to tufts

New York-based modern dancers Art Bridgman (LA'72) and Myrna Packer transformed Jackson Dance Lab into a performance studio Thursday night. Through a sequence of pieces, the pair revealed the true nature of their art form _ one of balance, trust, technique, and creativity.

Bridgman and Packer, often publicized as "masters of duet" have been partners for over 20 years. Bridgman, a Tufts graduate, returned to Walnut Hill with Packer _his wife and dance partner _ to give a workshop and informal performance Thursday.

Surrounded by dimly lit black curtains the audience was transported into a studio and exposed to the creative energy of modern dance partnering. Jackson was densely packed with even a row of students sitting cross-legged on the floor.

Even before their first move the pair challenged the audience to accept an atypical image of the human body, one unencumbered by depth or weight. The first piece, an excerpt from a longer work entitled "Carried Away," was choreographed to experiment with the physical interplay of light, size, and shadow.

Their faces to the audience, and their images cast against a bright red screen, Bridgman and Packer began by creating the illusion of two-dimensionality as the light cut sharply around the outlines of their bodies. Quickly disappearing behind the screen, Bridgman and Packer experimented with the size and shape of their shadows.

Bridgman and Packer created a set out of a flowing translucent red curtain lit from behind and adjusted their distance between the light and the screen to distort the size and sharpness of their shadows. Wearing unadorned sleeveless shirts and pants of white chiffon, the figures were presented with a feeling of anonymity, simplicity, and innocence.

Moving across the screen both together and individually, the pair created a dialogue between faceless figures in a series of physical challenges and responses, their imbalance in size and attitude paralleled by their implicit distance behind the screen. Dim lighting from both the front and back as the piece progressed illuminated the depth of the figure in front of the screen, while maintaining the figure behind as a shadow. Separated by red and unable to see each other, the dancers alternated between moving in unison and opposition, the dancer behind the screen embodying both the shadow of the three-dimensional dancer and taking on a life and energy of its own.

The duet concluded their first piece with a series of artistic lifts behind the screen, weaving their bodies together to create one form. Their final unison spoke to the need for balance and equality. Ultimately, the figures were only able to combine their energy after imbalances in size and control were resolved.

If "Carried Away" grappled with preliminary issues of achieving equilibrium, the following piece, "Lava Falls," took the challenge of partnering a step further with an exploration of trust. Moments before the music began, Bridgman and Packer engaged in a rapid dialogue outlining the choreography for the piece.

Each exchange ended with Packer fearful of a fall and Bridgman quickly resolving to catch her. Silencing their voices, Bridgman and Packer began to act out the interplay of trust between two dancers. They stood on two small steps, carefully exchanging places through a series of lifts or physical entanglements. Bridgman dipped Packer close to the floor, but following his promise, always caught her, and lifted her back into balance on the step. Through the complete surrender of her body to Bridgman, Packer demonstrated how integral trusting her dance partner was to achieving the most graceful and creative choreography.

Confident in their possession of the basic tools of balance and trust, Bridgman and Packer presented "Kata" to extol the import of technique and discipline. "Kata" began with a presentation of traditional martial arts performed by the couple's thirteen-year-old son, Davy Bridgman-Packer. A black-belt in karate, Davy moved with clarity and precision he could only have achieved from years of diligent training.

Bridgman and Packer emerged from the shadows of their son's demonstration dressed in the black of Davy's uniform but with lighter, free-flowing shirts and pants.

The couple responded to the art of karate with the art of modern dance, incorporating elements of the martial arts into their choreography. In "Kata," Bridgman and Packer blurred the line between disciplined technique and creative process. In the dictated routine of their young son the couple found inspiration for further expression. All three performers revealed the beauty of both traditional art forms that have survived thousands of year and dance that has been envisioned in the last two years. Dance is a timeless expression, Bridgman and Packer revealed; dance is a vehicle to reach into the past, to combine history and present.

Bridgman and Packer brought the evening full circle with their performance of excerpts from "Rapid Eye Movement," a series of dream sequences expressed in dance and spoken word. In their final selection, the dancers moved from the technical to the conceptual and they experimented with the endless opportunity for creation. By incorporating imagined experience with physical movement, they blurred the line between the appearance and reality and showed the audience that the boundaries for modern dance are constrained only by the limits of the imagination. Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer succeeded not only in exposing the Tufts community to the beauty of dance, but also to the skillful technique of artists and richness of the creative process.

Though Bridgman and Packer may have intended to give the audience just a sample of their choreography and performance, the pair danced beautifully and worked together to create a performance that was relaxing yet provocative, and a pleasure to watch.

Partial funding of the event was given through the Tufts Toupin-Bolwell fund and by the New England Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the six state arts agencies of New England.