June 1995

A "Canopy" Stands Out With Acrobatic Flourish in "Moves"

by Lewis Segal

On the opening "Prime Moves" program at LACE on Friday locally based choreographer Lisa K. lock danced a solo titled "Canopy" to music by Leigh Ann Gillespie- a solo full of twitchy, insectile limb-spasms and low, crablike scamperings across the floor. By the closing "Prime Moves" performance on Sunday, "Canopy" had become a duet for Lock and Clyde Howell: the same only different.

If the major movement-events of the piece seemed unchanged, Howell's presence created new opportunities for gymnastic interplay: a passage in which Lock rode on his back, for example, let her slide to the floor and then collapsed slowly over her. Strongly performed in both versions, "Canopy" offered a number of unusual positions for dancing and unorthodox methods of locomotion- plus a potent sense of atmosphere.