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Reviews Archives Los Angeles Times Highways
Performance Space welcomed the exhilarating collective La Danserie.
Choreographer-dancer Lisa K. Lock dominated the Highways evening in
stamina, verstility and technique. From “Voiceless” a contact
improvisation between her and Juan Francisco Robles, to “Perpetual
Identities,” in which Philip Chang, Vanessa Jue, Tony Licon, Jennifer
McDonald-Wilson, Grant Wilson and Jennifer Usyak shed light effectively on
issues of trust, fear and isolation, the work soared. Lock
shone, too, in McDonald-Wilson’s take on “Waiting for Godo,” her
loose-limbed playfulness a perfect foil for Jue’s equally enchanting
high jinks. Choreographer
Patrick Frantz made use of Lock’s heron-like presence in his “Chosen
Ones,” an Ellis Island-like scenario abounding with fugal moves and
furious passion. Dancer Lisa
K. Lock's contribution to the company is valuable as dancer, as well as
choreographer. Her work is the other world premiere debuted. After
beautifully executing the solo, Luange, which Frantz created for her, she
established herself as an incredibly imaginative choreographer with Skaug.
The six dancers were moving as they showed how humankind is always
coveting whatever one does not have. There were no program notes so the
audience was left to their own interpretation... a lovely piece. Los
Angeles Times Just
as "The Grind" was dominated by the riveting Yamaguchi, eyes
were drawn solely to Lisa K. lock in the Fullers' "All About
Grace," with live percussion and taped version of "Amazing
Grace." Tall, bald and perfectly articulate, Lock moved with cat-like
agility while five dancers advanced and retreated on a ramp- always with a
studied audience awareness the choreographers build into their work. Los Angeles Times In
Contrast, the quiet heroism of maintaining one's sense of Balance in a
hostile environment informs Lisa K. Lock's fine sculptural solo
"Window of Silence" Los Angeles Times The
one-person show, though sometimes steeped in bloated confessionals, is
popular theater fare. With dance, however, a solo evening can prove
problematic because of stamina. Dancer-Choreographer Lisa K. Lock, whose
solo program "Collected Moments" was on view at LACE Friday
night, demonstrated the opposite: Edgy and powerful, Lock's middle initial
might very well stand for kinetic. Lock,
classically trained, used her exceedingly long limbs to great effect,
displaying rippling muscles with sculptural style to spare in three works
new to her repertory and three familiar (and previously reviewed) pieces. In
"Human-Huwoman," Klaus Nomi's quasi-baroque score meshed with
Lock's choreography, with the dancer patting herself on the back before
veering into parody-dying swan and balletic spin territory. Lock's close
cropped hair and anguished eyes completed the picture, while her work-boot
pointe moves brought to mind tap guru Savion Glover. Winifred
R. Harris' piece "Behind my Back in Front of My Face,"
choreographed to a slice of Henryck Gorecki's redemptive Third symphony,
is by nature, elegiac. Lock displayed limitless elegance, whether rising
on bare toes, writhing on the floor, executing a frenzy of leaps or
holding an an invisible mirror to reflect the world's sorrow. Patrick
Frantz's "Luange(Praise)," had Lock in ballet shoes draped in a
red banner, dipping, turning and holding impossibly beautiful poses to
Olivier Messiaen's score, with a dramatic ending in which Lock was pulled
from stage while lying on the sash. To
see Lock smile at the evening's end was nearly as refreshing as witnessing
her earlier muscular finesse. Los Angeles Times In
"Bryonphyllum" to Music by Larry A. Attaway, soloist Lisa k.
Lock crouched on the tips of her pointe shoes, slowly clawing the air and
sometimes hanging off free-standing Pole units. Resembling a crustacean on
the prowl, she demonstrated meticulous control of body-sculpture and a
potent imagination. Los Angeles Times 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. Dance Magazine
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