STEPHANIE SKURA AND COMPANY
But Skura is the only one I know of who has the wit and imagination to pair the monumental Fifth Symphony with a farcical and wildly athletic dance–Cranky Destroyers–and make that pairing work in a fascinatingly bizarre way.
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Classical purists might complain that Skura’s choreographic treatment of Beethoven’s masterpiece, whose portentous opening notes have been described as “Fate knocking at the door,” is sacrilege. But if it is, it is most amusing sacrilege. And it has a sort of nutty logic in which Skura’s unconventional creative momentum somehow fits with the music’s urgency: neither music nor dance is accompaniment to the other, but in Skura’s nutty world they are companions.
Big Waves has a program note about the buildup of large forces and disintegration. The constant movement–sometimes expanding, sometimes shrinking–is reminiscent of waves surging forward and then ebbing away. The exuberant athleticism of Big Waves is even more striking than in Cranky Destroyers. And like waves that are always uniquely original–almost improvisational–the dancers’ bodies mirror the impact of each wave as they leap up or at each other, or crash to the floor.
