The lively imagination and refreshing wit of Canadian Brass brought that moment to life in a comically condensed version of Bizet’s Carmen Saturday night at Blossom Music Center. Co-founder Chuck Daellenbach led the charge, so to speak, dressed up like a bull with horns on his head.

The bull fight was just part of what makes this self-deprecating quintet of world-class musicians so enjoyable. Trumpeter Coletti, who already has an impossibly awesome mane of curly black hair, wore a black wig as the coquettish Carmen. The rest of the quintet wore various wigs and hats to take on the roles of the toreador, nice girl Micaela and the soldier Don Jose.

Obviously, these guys don’t take themselves terribly seriously all of the time, as evidenced by the white tennis shoes they sport with their black suits. They know how to infuse humor where it’s approptriate, with the multitalented Daellenbach even playing the maracas while making music on tuba.

These musicians are opera lovers, so joining Carmen in the program were Suite from L’Orfeo and Suite from Porgy and Bess, too. The Gershwin proved fascinating as the trumpets assumed the voices of Bess and Daellenbach represented the low bass voice of Porgy. Especially jazzy was Keith Dyrda on his trombone solo in It Ain’t Necessarily So. French hornist Jeff Nelsen opened the suite with a mellowly beautiful solo in Summertime.

One of my favorite parts of the performance was Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, which showed off what incredible musicians these brass players are. The piece was both rich and precise, and it was amazing to hear the contrapuntal voices done with all brass.

The only brass arrangement that didn’t work was the Beatles’ Blackbird, part of an Essential Beatles medley. Dyrda’s low-voiced solo on trombone was drowned out by the other brass instruments. It wasn’t a good listening experience straining to pick out the famous melody.

Penny Lane rocked, though, as did dueling trumpeters Coletti and Brandon Ridenour in Come Together.

Canadian Brass has had incredible longevity, founded 40 years ago in Toronto. The group keeps evolving, with three of the five members now in their 20s and co-founder Gene Watts stepping down just last spring. The group’s stellar musicianship and bright, entertaining personalities are what keep audiences coming back for more.

The highlight of the evening was hearing the superstar’s wildly exhilarating fiddling in the elaborately racing runs that are a hallmark of the Allegro molto in Saint-Saens’ Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano. Bell had promised in an earlier interview that this movement, known for its blazing virtuosity, would bring the house down, and it did.

Bell was appearing with Tuesday Musical for the third time, paired this time with pianist Jeremey Denk, his longtime collaborator. In the romantic Saint-Saens, Bell’s sound ranged from magical and mysterious to an unearthly sweetness. In the dramatic final movement, tension built as Bell and Denk traded off in melodic strains.

Bell, dressed in satiny black pants and a black, untucked shirt with maroon trim, was courteously affable as he introduced each selection. This deferential artist, commenting on a shortage of programs, told the packed house “I remember the old days when there were too many programs left at the end.”

He began his intimate recital by performing the Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 4 in C Minor for the first time, marked by Denk’s jauntiness at the piano and Bell’s tripping contrapuntal flourishes in the Allegro.

Throughout the evening, Bell’s touch turned from tender to buoyant, whispering or bombastic. He celebrated the 200th anniversary of Schumann’s birth with the restlessness and hushed tension of Schumann’s Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in A minor.

Ravel’s 1927 Sonata for Violin and Piano was the most unusual piece on the program, especially the Blues: Moderato, which was inspired by American jazz of the 1920s. Here, Bell praised Schumann as a “master of color.”

The odd harmonies of the movement aren’t what many audiences are used to: The slow movement is polytonal, with the piano and violin playing two different keys at once.

In contrast, the piece ended with the fast and furious Perpetuum Mobile, with the violin and piano answering each other in grand dramatic style.

The audience couldn’t get enough of this superstar, so Bell’s encore brought another treat: his hero Fritz Kreisler’s arrangement of Dvorak’s Slavonic Dance. Bell brought a much sweeter dimension to the work for violin and piano than the orchestral version does, including moments that sounded like fluttering laughter.

The selection was perfect, considering it was the exact day of the late Kreisler’s birthday. [Feb. 2.]

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Wrapped around small trees.
Mirror heads and bathroom dance.
Cocktails, anyone?

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Hearkening Harlem?
This joint ain’t jumpin’. Poor Fats.
I feel deflated.

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The bathtub awaits…
Prying eyes wreak more violence.
Agony relived.

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No mirrors: Pleasure.
Can I have this Decadance?
Gaga for Ohad.

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Chalk temple friezes
breathe with hypnotic beauty.
The jungle whispers.

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Testosterone twins.
Tense droning, bursts of motion.
Entwine and release.

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Fluid oneness links
bodies sculpted in shadow.
A serene vision.

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Vibrant Vivaldi.
Clever entrances, exits,
like animal pairs.

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Spins and jumps galore.
The music’s repetitive,
not monotonous.

A consuming tension makes viewers unable to resist being drawn into an
ever-shifting male-bonding relationship between Israeli choreographer
Emanuel Gat and fellow dancer Roy Assaf in the opening segment of Gat’s
world premiere duet Winter Variations.

A bare stage and shadowy darkness, designed by Gat, focuses the attention solely on this pair’s manly grappling as they pace like wild animals, circling and staking their territory while fastidiously avoiding making eye contact with each other, The men’s nervous energy, manifested in repetitive, circular swiping of their arms over their head and faces, evokes a feeling of wariness and distrust against a recorded backdrop of eerie droning at Reynolds Industries Theater.

The duo — who gesticulate across a distance in short bursts of rapid, independent movement, followed by stillness — finally engage in an uncomfortable stare. As they draw increasingly closer, they flirt with the idea of touching, with undulating arms hovering over one another.

The droning sound intensifies, along with a feeling of dread, as one dancer becomes submerged in blackness and the other creeps cautiously toward him. The tension becomes nearly unbearable to watch.

It’s an emotional payoff when the dancers finally touch, beginning a tentative connection by placing arms across a shoulder or around a waist. This relationship may not be love, but it at least looks like camaraderie.

Intimacy continues to grow as one man nearly places his head in the other’s lap. It’s still awkward, though, as Assaf carries Gat with the choreographer facing outward, his legs hooked backwards around Assaf’s thighs.

When the music shifts abruptly, so does the mood of the men’s partnership. As the Beatles’ A Day in the Life bursts forth, they look like bouncy swing dance partners.

In this give-and-take affair, the two break apart but are soon reunified, running playfully at each other’s side in a circular pattern to the stringed music of Egyptian composer and vocalist Riad Al Sunbati .

Even so, this seems to be a love-hate relationship. These guys alternately turn their backs on each other and walk away, or fake each other out with combative, stiff-armed chops to the shoulders and torso. At the other extreme, joy and wonder become part of the dance as a moment of fleet-footed unison matches the exact rhythm of the stringed oud accompaniment,

Gat plays with the audience through stillness: At one point he and Assaf stand next to each other and simply stare out into the house, and later take a minute-long break just to lie down.

The mood changes again dramatically as sumptuous Strauss bursts forth and the outline of the motionless dancers comes into slow focus through the darkness. Knees and shoulders tremble violently as emotions seem to run high. In the end, all appears maimed or spent in a weak fight of flailing and belly flopping.

Choreographer Shen Wei creates beautifully contrasting moods and cultural landscapes with his three-part modern dance series Re- at the 2009 American Dance Festival in Durham, N.C.¶
The triptych Re-, whose title refers to “return, reconsideration and renewal,” is performed for the first time in its entirety, with Part III receiving its world premiere. The Re- dances, performed by Shen Wei Dance Arts, were inspired by Shen’s journeys through the diverse lands of Tibet, Cambodia and China’s Silk Road from Beijing to Xian.¶
Saturday’s program began with Re- Part I, a Tibetan piece highlighted by the exhilarating surprise of the dancers’ disruption of a carefully laid-out mandala on the stage floor. Its geometric pattern is created by paper confetti, which trails softly like snow from the dancers’ bodies as they roll and whirl through the configuration.¶
This peaceful piece features Tibetan chants, moments of profound silence and a dramatic storm cloud backdrop. ¶
The new Part III, inspired by Shen’s travels in China, explores the opposing forces of Eastern interdependence and Western individuality. Featuring a dissonant violin composition by David Lang, its militaristic bent features dancers marching and running in formation. Pairs of dancers also lean and push against each other in intense oppositional force as East meets West. Dancers assert their independence by “stepping´´ out of formation, with one even scuttling disjointedly like a crab.¶
The most startlingly beautiful piece is Shen’s Re- (Part II), which premiered in Montreal in 2007. The dance’s hypnotic, surreal beauty is embodied most strikingly by dancer Joan Wadopian. Lying on the floor with hip rounded, shoulders thrust upward and head hanging far back, the sinewy Wadopian is bathed in a brilliant wash of bright light. The dancers’ chalky white faces and bodies complete the alabaster human sculptures.¶
Their magnificent musculature is laid bare by nearly naked bodies, with both male and female dancers wearing only flesh-colored shorts. Their ethereal tableau, inspired by Cambodia’s temple carvings, includes such subtle movement as a feathery sweep of the fingers on the floor.¶
This aural and visual feast features recorded sounds from the Cambodian jungle and a lush photographic backdrop of birds and Banyon tree.¶

These wonderful young musicians played with verve and plenty of entertaining personality at E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall in Akron. The 20-member chamber orchestra is made up of musicians ages 19 to 27 who are winners of the national Sphinx Competition for black and Hispanic string players.
The Sphinx organization is based in Detroit but its winning musicians come from all over the country and the world, several of the artists told me following the performance.

Expect the refreshingly unexpected with these sparkling musicians, who played a huge range of music from traditional classical — my favorite was the sumptuously beautiful Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings — to some spicier fare featuring Argentinian, Cuban and American composers.

The ultra-bold, Latin-flavored Autumn in Buenos Aires, by the late Argentine Astor Piazzolla, was so remarkable it brought me to tears. This piece featured the lovely Elena Urioste (of the Harlem Quartet) as solo violinist.

Cuban composer Guido Gavilan’s Mi Menor Conga was surprisingly fun as the musicians turned their stringed instruments into percussive vehicles, with violinist Ilmar Gavilan making an unexpected entrance striking the wood body of his violin percussively with his hand.

The Harlem Quartet’s Hellbound Highball, by Wynton Marsalis, was relentlessly fun, depicting a train bound for hell. Every time you thought the train was about to stop, it surged on. It’s amazing what a sense of play Gavilan, Melissa White, Juan-Miguel Hernandez and Desmond Neysmith brought to their instruments, creating the sound of screeching brakes, a choo choo effect, a train bell and the rhythmic feel of a locomotive bouncing along the tracks.

The Harlem Quartet was so excellent, I wished they had played as many pieces at the full chamber orchestra did. Those artists are Sphinx laureates who have formed their own quartet with the mission of creating a varied repertoire by highlighting the works of minority composers.

Only one part of this fantastic program felt off: In Bach’s Concert for Two Violins and String Orchestra, the violin duo featuring Urioste and White was lacking in confidence. The solo line alternates but Urioste definitely played second fiddle to White, playing too quietly and not making her upper melody sing as beautifully as her counterpart. I kept wanting Urioste to play more legato, and the overall effect was lacking.

For the finale, the two groups joined together for Delights and Dances, a commissioned piece for Sphinx’s 10th anniversary. It had an easy, jazzy rhythm as well as a lovely lyricism, combining jazz and bluegrass. At one point, Harlem Quartet had the melody traveling up and down a line, passing it from viola to violin to violin and back.

The crowd was so appreciative, the quartet played a zippy encore, the standard jazz classic Take The ‘A’ Train, composed by Billy Strayhorn and made famous by Duke Ellington. In some strikingly educational patter, Neysmith explained that Strayhorn composed the famous tune on his way to a piano audition, naming it off-the-cuff after the New York subway he took to get there.

This evening of diverse performance certainly opened one’s eyes to the wondrously diverse styles that can be created with stringed instruments. It’s satisfying to hear such young, highly accomplished musicians mix it up so brilliantly.

I knew I’d be doing that, and that it could be a painfully wonderful process when I applied to the NEA Arts Journalism Institute for dance writers and critics at Duke University. I won’t bore everyone with “what I learned at dance camp,” but three weeks of writing workshops and delving into the rich world of modern dance at the American Dance Festival in Durham, N.C., has been a thoroughly enriching, intense, invigorating and mind-stretching experience.

It has confirmed my suspicion that I do have a dance critic inside me, much as I love to analyze theater and help make it come alive for readers in my community. I’ve learned that dance can make you both laugh for joy and cry your eyes out. Finding ways to convey with meaningful language the beauty or ugliness of movement, the grace or even the brutality that movement can evoke, has been the key to my learning process. It’s about evoking moods, using imperfect language to try to capture the heavenly language of the body.

You know you’re witnessing amazing dance when you see H. Art Chaos’ emotionally wrenching “Rite of Spring” and the horrifying climax not only makes you cry the first time, you also cry just as hard the second time you see it, even though you know exactly what’s coming.

(Production photos by Sara D. Davis/American Dance Festival)

Created by Japanese choreographer Sakiko Oshima to Stravinsky’s famous score, here the traditional sacrificial lamb has been changed to a rape victim who must endure the cruelty of the prying eyes of those around here after the initial crime already has been committed.

By treating the victim brutally, they make her relive her agony, causing more violence to her. This piece employs aerial artistry to highly dramatic effect, with the victim and her persecutors suspended at various times mid-air. Dangling chairs and dancers create an eerie, noose-like effect. A breathtaking moment occurs when the victim fights back, flinging her hair back and forth magnificently in a bathtub full of water to soak those who hover nearby in androgynous black suits.

Oshima’s “Rite of Spring” inspired me to write this haiku:

The bathtub awaits.
Prying eyes wreak more violence.
Agony relived.

Both torment and beauty abound in Oshima’s “Rite of Spring” and the world premiere of her “Flower of the Bones,” also performed at ADF. “Flowers of the Bones” explores a woman’s journey through the spirit worlds into the afterlife. The lead dancer, undulating high in the air in a harness, appears to be swimming through thick water as she moves through the air. Oshima based her piece on her own near-drowning experience.

This is the stuff of high drama.

The piece has fantastic aerial and costuming images that create mysterious, otherworldly effects.

The following is a short essay I wrote about the costumes’ symbolism, which was part of a multimedia project that the 12 fellows and I created to capture and “translate” Oshima’s work.

Mermaids and metamorphosis.

The skirt design creates gorgeous movement within the garment itself. But it becomes all the more breathtaking with the three “mermaid’’ dancers’ long, flowing motions as they preen on tables as if they’re resting on rocks in the sea. Later, they stand behind the tables scattering confetti as their lovely tails trail behind them.

[gall

Skiles, who holds the Paul A. Daum professorship in theater, will talk about how Shakespeare sizzles in each generation’s pop culture, from Harry Potter to Tony Soprano today. Skiles studied at the Royal Shakespeare Institute and was a founding member and actor at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. He directed UA’s Twelfth Night, with a modern setting during New Orleans’ Mardi Gras.

Cost is $35 each. Call 330-972-5196 or e-mail cyndee@uakron.edu for reservations, which are limited.

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AUSPICIOUS NEW VENTURE
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My husband, friends and I were happy to celebrate with the Seans as they opened their new Cleveland theater with a lowkey gala April 19. The black-box space just a stone’s throw from Public Square was impressive, with a large outer lobby prominently featuring the art of Stow painter Todd V and plenty of room for gathering in the inner lobby.

The play This Is How It Goes, by Neil LaBute, was guest directed by Fred Sternfeld of Cleveland. The material was nowhere near as good as LaBute’s Fat Pig or Some Girls, both previously produced at BNC Akron. But the actors did the most they could with the script.

Especially enjoyable was Doug Kusak as the Man. This guy always has a delightfully devilish look on his face, which plays a large part in how he reins the audience in for what starts out as a tale of a high school crush that’s still burning years later.

The tone changes drastically as the play becomes an exploration of racism and gender roles (to a lesser extent). LaBute’s works aren’t shy about asking viewers ugly questions about our own ugly attitudes and prejudices: Be prepared for some nasty language, including the ”n” word.

This play’s too long to run without an intermission: I see no reason why Sternfeld couldn’t have inserted one before the tide changes in the story.

Leighann Niles DeLorenzo is believable as the former cheerleader facing a marriage crisis and Michael May’s OK as Cody. The play continues through Saturday (May 10). See www.bnctheatre.com for more information.

I’m kinda scared to see BNC’s current Akron offering, Christopher Denham’s Cagelove. From what I’ve heard, it has one character forcing another to relive/retell her horrifying rape experience. Does this show shock for shock value alone? We’ll have to see.

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WORDS TO THE WISE
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I’ve been thinking about the sage Alice Walker — author of The Color Purple – since I heard her speak on a WVIZ/Ideastream special recently, televised at Playhouse Square in conjunction with the coming of the musical tour.

She talked about how the title of her book came about: The color purple is just as prevalent in nature as other colors.

”It’s just that we don’t see it,” she said. ”It’s just like the people in this book (eg. the oppressed Celie). They’re prevalent but you don’t see them.”

Her comments on The Color Purple were just a small part of Walker’s larger conversation with musical book writer Marsha Norman and a largely student audience. The deeply philosophical Walker spoke of our world being on the brink of ecological disaster, and said our species must deal with our self hatred, which we don’t talk about.

As a writer, I was especially interested to hear Walker say she has never suffered writer’s block.

”I don’t believe in stuckness, and you shouldn’t,” said Walker, encouraging the audience to accept that they’re meant to be doing something else if the words aren’t flowing.

Wallker called writing ”liberatory,” and described writing since she could crawl, when she scribbled with a twig in the margins of a Sears Roebuck catalog. She also spoke about how she relates to each character in her works.

”Novels are like dreams. When you dream, everybody in the dream is you,” she said.

The author’s latest project is transcribing 40 years of journals to see where that takes her.

I also liked her wish for youngsters that they ”be strong, bright, open and free.”

She stressed that her books are good for students: ”When you read my books, it’s like taking vitamins.”

Good stuff.

He’s a late ’70s Buchtel High School graduate who designed the original Purple Broadway production as well as other Broadway shows including Caroline, or Change, A Raisin in the Sun and Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk.

Thanks to the anonymous caller who left a voicemail calling to my attention the star that came from our midst. Tazewell has twice been nominated for a Tony — for Noise/Funk and Purple.

Looking back through our archives, I see that Tazewell also designed costumes for the national tour of Fame.

His Web site, http://paultazewell.net, also lists him as an associate professor of costume design at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. I checked Wikipedia for an entry on him but there isn’t one. Someone needs to start one!

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A FIRST
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Even I can’t believe that after serving eight years as a theater critic, last week was the first time I saw Riverdance live. This is the kind of show you have to see at least once in your life to have an appreciation for all the hype surrounding it.

I enjoyed myself at E.J. Thomas Hall, although a couple of ladies with me said they were falling asleep from the repetitiveness and another said the performers needed to “get over themselves” during the extended curtain call.

The bravura of the male lead dancer (there are three so I’m not sure which one I saw) was especially thrilling at the April 1 performance. I also enjoyed the dance line of the entire Irish dance troupe in the number Riverdance as well as the wonderful Russian Dervish by the Moscow Folk Ballet.

The Riverdance Band was exceptionally jazzy in Slow Air/Tunes, and the Irish piper was fabulous in Lament. The percussion also was a marvel, especially the bodhran.

The most humorous piece was the danceoff between the hip Riverdance Tappers and the traditional Male Irish Dance Troupe in Trading Taps, which showed that these men of very different tapping styles had more in common than you’d think.

Going into this show, I had no idea there would be such a universality to the production: I thought it was going to be all Irish step dancing. The Moscow Folk Ballet and the Flamenco soloist Nuria Brisa made for a multicultural evening.

Things slowed down a bit too much, though when Brisa was on stage, as well as when baritone Michael Samuels sang. He had a great voice, but he just didn’t move.

There’s really no through story in this piece, but there were some overarching themes, including the universality of musical and dance expression as well as themes of immigration and the river itself as a source of life everywhere.

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FINAL TIDBIT
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I’m happy to see that Akron’s getting in on Fusion Fest08 at the Cleveland Play House, an 18-day celebration of new works in music, dance and theater. New World Performance Laboratory, housed at the University of Akron and co-founded by James Slowiak and Jairo Cuesta, will perform Frankenstein (A De-Monstration) at 7:30 p.m. May 5-6 on the Bolton Stage. It’s a collective creation based on Mary Shelley’s novel and elements of her life. The piece investigates the gothic horror genre and asks questions about humanity. Tickets are $15. Call 216-795-7000 Ext. 4 for reservations.