The Best of Tapestry, Too: Persistent Joy

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The Best of Tapestry, Too: Persistent Joy

Paramount Theatre,

February 18

The dancer taps elegantly across the empty stage, the modest smile playing across her lips signaling the personal satisfaction she takes in these movements and the syncopated rhythms they sound out. But in the midst of her dance, she is interrupted. A disembodied voice -- her own, curiously enough -- sneers out a rebuke, a stinging criticism of her and her art. She stops, clearly deflated by what's been said. But after a few deep breaths, she begins moving again, first in a walk, then in the same casual, captivating Morse Code steps as before. She eases into the dance, the smile returns, and all is well ... until the voice breaks in again, denigrating her efforts, sowing more doubt. The dancer stops, pauses, starts again. And on it goes.

If one dance had to stand for the history of Tapestry Dance Company -- and given the varied styles and moods this troupe encompasses, that's asking an awful lot -- it might well be this one: Acia Gray's Biorhythms, taken from solo series From the Inside Out. In it, Gray's beleaguered dancer is an accomplished artist whose movements inspire joy but whose labors and achievements are consistently challenged, diminished, dismissed. So it has been for this company, a wholly distinctive multiform troupe which, despite its appealing blend of ballet, modern, jazz, and that oh-so-sweet rhythm tap, and the skill and spirit with which it's presented, has, for the 10 years it has existed, consistently encountered resistence from those who disapprove of its eclecticism, disparagement from those who disagree with the artists' creative choices, indifference from most of their fellow citizens. Seeing it presented in the context of the company's 10th anniversary was a poignant reminder of the struggles faced by every dance company and this one in particular.

And yet, even this dance isn't ideal for characterizing Tapestry, if only because it ends with Gray removing her shoes and leaving the stage resignedly. And that is not the Tapestry way. No matter what's been said about them, what obstacles have been thrown in their way, the Tapestry dancers have never stopped moving. And in The Best of Tapestry, Too, their perseverance and persistent joy in what they do shone through again and again: in the exuberant communal athleticism of the large group pieces Alive and Reconstruction; in the funky percussion and sly humor of the push-broom and wadded-up newspaper dance Recycle; in the unfettered energy of Nicholas Young, a wild mustang of a dancer; in the sensuous entwining moves of Melissa Glouchkova and Vladislav Glouchkov; in the sublime artistry of Acia Gray, whose uncanny grace and fascinating rhythms seem ever more irresistible as time goes by.

Perhaps the nod for the Tapestry dance should go to the finale for Best of ..., Too, Ballet Eireann. This 1997 collaboration between the company and the Irish Dance Company was indeed a tapestry, an evocation of the Emerald Isle woven in movements of ballet, rhythm tap, and Irish step dance. The sweeping romantic leaps and turns of Deirdre Strand's balletic choreography -- the dancers drifting on and off like so many will-o'-the-wisps -- made a tender counterpoint to the spritely bouncy skips of Eimir Ni Mhaoileidigh's step dance choreography, which in turn proved strikingly similar to the rhythm tap moves choreographed by Acia Gray. As the different dancers moved in and out of styles, in contrast and in concord and even in glorious competition, we were reminded how many different and wonderful ways we humans have found to express ourselves and how even in our variety we're saying the same things. We are many and we are one. And that is the legacy of Tapestry.