ZEPHYR DANCE ENSEMBLE
Jimi Hendrix always had a different program than other rock musicians in the 60s. While the Beatles were shaping the blues into classical dimensions and Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, and many others were giving the blues a hammering intensity, Hendrix was moving away from genre forms. Instead he used noise–feedback or the sound of a pick–to push toward concrete music; the howl of feedback was just as good as F sharp on a violin.
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The Kronos Quartet camps up “Purple Haze” on a grand scale. The first section is Gregorian chant, for which Haun outfits the Zephyr dancers (Tammy Cheney, Michelle Kranicke, Margaret Reynolds, and Caroline Walsh) in monks’ robes. They follow each other in a line, hunched over, mumbling prayers and stamping their feet. The monks bump into one another, take pratfalls, and even play leapfrog. The music changes to wind whistling, and as a dancer mimes closing the door a voice says: “Shut that door. It’s freezing in here.” Haun’s comic business works well. As the “Purple Haze” theme comes in, the monks take off their robes, revealing themselves to be women in flesh-colored unitards; the tone shifts from comedy to camp sensuality. The dancing becomes very quick and physical, filled with leaps and attitude jumps. Haun’s choreography is a bit beyond the Zephyr dancers’ abilities, but its physicality is a satisfying expression of Hendrix’s music.
Zephyr is a fairly new company working hard to find an identity, discovering good choreographers like Haun and starting to define a physically and technically demanding style of movement performed with speed. Its next few years may be rewarding to watch.
Kirby’s other two dances, Beginnings and Ororo (Beauty), are duets marred by an emphasis on shapes rather than movement. Movement is dynamic; a sequence of shapes is not. Both duets were danced well and sensuously by Vanassa Truvillion and Howard.
