CHI-TOWN JAZZ DANCE
Artistic director Meribeth Kisner is no dance novice–she has been an apprentice to the Harkness Ballet in Dallas, a principal dancer and associate director of Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, and a dancer in numerous Broadway and stock productions. Now in her mid-30s, Kisner stands out among her dancers because of her willowy height and assured attitude.
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The program opened with Phrase Three by Kisner, using new-age jazz music by Pat Metheney and Michael Convertino. Kim Tunstall, in a white top and black chiffon skirt, and Bill Stewart, in black top and white pants, streamed onstage for a sultry duet. Actually, Stewart did little but pose and support his partner as she spun and strutted, batting her leg up to tap her nose. Tunstall has exotic, catlike features: a wide brow tapering to an elongated chin; large, tilted eyes; pronounced cheekbones. She is the most secure of the dancers, relating to the audience with head-on directness. The couple were joined by Julie Cartier and Robert DeLeon, who spun in slower, softer attitude turns and extensions as the runaway piano-and-snare-drum score softened. They exited as petite, dark Sharon Freedman entered for a brief, spirited solo. Kisner and the other dancers then joined Freedman in leaps across the stage and slow extensions, ending in a circle of reddish light, arms and faces lifted to the rafters.
Freedman choreographed Four Ladies Only, a pretty bauble dedicated to the choreographer’s mother for teaching her, according to a program note, “a lot about what it is to be a woman.” Cartier and Freedman, in pastel T-shirts and white tights, drifted through the first section, “Contemplation,” to an acoustic Elton John ballad. Tunstall made it a threesome in “Competition,” accompanied by Rickie Lee Jones’s “Easy Money.” “Competition” had wonderful touches of humor, as each tried to outdo the others in primping and preening before invisible mirrors. Although Freedman quivered through the slow extensions and turns, her deadpan wit was right on; Cartier and Tunstall were confidently catty. Van Morrison’s “Moondance” capped the third section, “Cooperation,” in which the three women seemed happily innocent.
At the Big Club Hall capped the program with a ruffle of styles and costumes that all drew on the big band era, with music by Les Hooper, Les McCann, and Peter Herbolzheimer. Tunstall dominated the stage with her expansive, joint-popping technique, legs to her eyebrows. She dances with such force her accessories have a hard time staying put–in On Tap she had to cover, and did so beautifully, for a lost derby, while in Big Club Hall her tuxedo jacket sprang open with her first high-flying kick. At the climax, she led the pack of dancers downstage in a high-stepping, shoulder-shimmying charge, white-gloved fingers waving high. The audience returned the favor with a standing ovation.
