Politics of dancing

Alexandra Beller highlights "Bodies in Motion."

By Rita Felciano

BIG MOVES, the service organization that promotes size diversity, has a slogan: "Every body can dance." Even though to dance is to be human, this statement may not be obvious to all those dancers who, for one reason or another – size, skin color, cultural background, disability, age – have traditionally felt unwelcome in dance classes. But Big Moves has another slogan: "What is more important, the size of the leotard or the scope of the talent?" One of these sayings deals with a basic human right, the other with dance onstage. Big Moves' most recent concert, "Bodies in Motion V: Five Years Running," beautifully illustrated that size matters – and that it doesn't.

The Oct. 14 program featured solos by guest choreographer and dancer Alexandra Beller, formerly of the Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company. Additionally, the show presented Mass Movement, a local company, in two commissioned works, by Sonoma County choreographer Ann Woodhead and Chris Black of Potrzebie Dance Project, respectively.

Beller is a very gifted dance-theater artist. She moved like a dynamo, slicing through space like a laser, her legs carving arcs the size of rainbows. Plopping to the floor, she shot up like a cork from a bottle. While she is not skinny, she is not particularly large in size. What's large about her is the scope of her reach, both kinetic and imaginative.

Beller is also a ferocious satirist. In the chilling Us, she lay flat on her stomach; as she raised her head, a trickle of blood appeared to run out of her mouth. It turned out that the "blood" was a section of the American flag, which became a penis, a security blanket, and a wrap. The score was composed of Walter Cronkite's seminal exposé on the government's lies about the Vietnam War.

In Culture of Life, Beller was magnetically drawn to a garbage can emitting the mumbling sounds of President George W. Bush delivering one of his more hypocritical speeches. Beller picked up the rhetoric, karaoke-style, and it almost tore her apart, leaving her with a gigantic cavern of a mouth and a babbling tongue. The piece's second half, a dance with an inflatable doll, was bitterly funny though just a touch predictable. In Diet Coke Can Save Your Life, Beller sported a clanging skirt of empty you-know-what cans. The dancing was straightforward and gorgeous, though the score, which included a raving preacher and diet ads, had plenty of bite.

Finding choreography for dancers outside the mainstream is not easy – as other groups, such as the mixed-ability Axis Dance Company, can testify. In the Mass Movement portion of the program, neither Woodhead nor Black quite lived up to that creative challenge.

Woodhead's Tide, for Mass Movement's trio of core dancers and five variously trained and untrained performers, looked like the scarcely shaped product of a workshop in self-expression. The bare-bones structure allowed for plenty of improvisation, which can be exciting if dancers have enough of a reservoir on which to draw; however, earnestness alone will not do it.

Black has a good sense for deadpan expressiveness. Even though ...The Sum of Its Parts did not add up, she managed to draw on the scope of the talent Mass Movement possesses, These are highly individual dancers. Laura Malouf-Renning attacked with awesome fierceness; Jessica Erin Judd appeared stoic but had something inevitable about her. Diane Russell was the quiet one, but there was a comedian in there somewhere. Overall, while it may take a while for Mass Movement to find its groove, it's clear the company is on its way.