The 16th annual RADFest, the Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival hosted by Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers, kicked off in downtown Kalamazoo with “Michigan Made Concert”, the first of seven performances offered throughout the weekend celebration of dance that also includes master classes, film screenings, panel discussions, and networking opportunities.
This is the second year the festival has begun with a showcase of dances made in the Great Lakes State, and the 75-minute performance of eight pieces of varying sizes and lengths offered an eclectic and compelling mix of modern, post-modern, and contemporary dance that explores the emotional possibilities of locally-grown expressive movement, at times in collaboration with other media.
Storm Stokes’ “liberation theology”, an excerpt from “I, HERESY”, projects a video of the very dance unfolding on stage on the upstage cyclorama, offering a dizzying perspective, sometimes in sync, sometimes not, on the women in red capris and tops plus those in flesh-colored unitards who dance as if disturbed by relentless, itchy welts to dissonant music.
In the intriguing solo “Fill Empty”, choreographed by Lyn Bowman and Mandy Herrick, Herrick walks onto the stage pumping an accordion, creating breath without notes, then sets it down, pushing herself seated across the stage; she wiggles and waggles, swinging arms and lifting head before rolling to stand with sweeping arms, ultimately dancing her hair out of its tie—to a sound score from Mike Wall that echoes the sound the accordion made. Fascinating to watch, the movement’s meaning comes into focus with a recorded reading of Jenny George’s poem “Tin Bucket”, a meditation on the simple elegance of the real: “At the end of everything, / dancers just use air as their material. / A voice keeps singing even /without an instrument.”
Also quite innovative is “Untitled” by The Improvisation Quartet, though performed as a trio Thursday night: Betsy Soukup on stand-up bass with Yali Rivlin on saxophone performing live while Benjamin Cheney emerges first as just an undulating hand from the wings then almost break dancing in black pants and button-down shirt, moving through the dissonance of sound emerging from the instruments, undulating through his spine, arms, and legs, balancing on one leg, brightly lit and with expressive eyes. Rivlin joins him in a wresting match of a pas de deux full of rolling, connection, and balance.
The shortest, sweetest, dance of the evening was “Polarity”, a big, bold, lyrical, and lovely piece choreographed and danced by Emma Kent and John Jandernoa dressed in opposing red and blue. Set to dramatic strings by Hendyamps Studios, it’s a beautiful use of space and music. Full of tension, they mirror and balance each other, and he lifts her triumphantly.
From the 2024-25 Radical Resident Artist Lourdes del Mar Santiago Lebròn came “siempre llaman a saber si comí” in which four dancers wearing crocheted tops and pants slide, glide, crawl, and roll on the floor but also walk with purpose, jump, lift, do headstands and shoulder stands and slice the air with their bodies. The 10-minute piece is so full of movement it feels twice as long as it is, and at times is utterly mesmerizing.
CPR Dance reprised “There are people” from their summer performance in the theatre, and in this thoughtful and sharply executed meditation on asking for help, the five dancers make their own music with audible breath and stomping feet. The piece is full of terrific tension—powerful yet carefully placed lifts, jumps and turns, and pile-up tableaus—and creates a very pretty, full stage, made more so with the invitation of one audience member onto the stage.
In the grand, edgy “Black Army” from Rodrick George, 10 dancers move in formation, changing body directions, dancing as if in a ‘90s music video with incredibly sharp, high energy: they’re up, they’re down, they’re jumping, they’re tumbling, they’re undulating, they’re twirling, leaping, gliding to the strong percussion and heavy beat of Tigga Lacole and the audience is calling out: “Come on, y’all; hey, let’s go!”
Another large piece, “For the Money” by Douglas Burkhardt from ConteXture Detroit, is the most balletic of the night, with seven dancers partnering each other and forming a circle; they offer gorgeous arabesques and extensions as well as stunning lifts, some very classical.
This diverse selection of dances had little in common with one another beyond their innovative spirit and being made in Michigan. It’s a new wonderful tradition that RADFest begins by paying homage to dancers working in our home state, and this year’s opening performance promises there will be a tremendous weekend of alternative dance in Kalamazoo.
Midwest RADFest
Feb. 27-March 1
https://wellspringdance.org/rad-performances
