David Parsons gets his professional satisfaction out of pairing his dance company's pieces with live music for his audience.
By ROBERT HICKS
Published November 13, 2003
[Publicity photo]
The Parsons Dance Company is about developing a style of dance, founder David Parsons says.
David Parsons' choreography is known for its kinetic energy, athleticism and simple beauty. A former principal dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Parsons has worked with musicians as diverse as the Turtle Island String Quartet, the Billy Taylor Trio, the Phil Woods Little Big Band and the Ahn Trio in his Parsons Dance Company.
At a time when many dance companies are forced to use recorded music, Parsons' emphasis on working with musicians is especially noteworthy.
"It's just a joy to give people a full experience of the arts," Parsons said from New York. "You're creating this world for the audience that's very rich musically and visually. That's the satisfaction I get."
When the Parsons Dance Company performs Friday in Sarasota, it will share the evening with the Ahn Trio, featuring sisters Angella (violin), Maria (cello) and Lucia (piano) Ahn. The program will open with the trio performing either Ronn Yedidia's Lullabye, Michael Nyman's Yellow Beach or Astor Piazzolla's Milonga Del Angel.
Then the dancers will join the trio for the company's Rise and Fall, set to music written by members of the Turtle Island String Quartet, arranged for trio by composer Kenji Bunch.
"It's just about self-determination," Parsons said. "It's really about getting up onstage. In basic layman's form, it's about getting up every Monday morning and doing it again. It's about the perseverance of humans."
Caught, set to Robert Fripp's music for guitar, is Parsons' signature piece. As a solo dancer leaps some 90 times, strobe lights flash, giving an incredible illusion of flight. Friday, for the first time, Angella Ahn will perform the music using digital equipment.
"I've always wanted to do it like that. Originally, it was done by Robert Fripp with one electric guitar looped on three reel-to-reel recorders to give the impression of record and decay," Parsons said of Fripp's signature cacophonous sound.
After intermission, the program will turn to pieces featuring Bunch. In Slow Dance, couples move intimately, wrapping around one another in twisting lifts and dips to lush, romantic music.
"I'd say it's a very community-oriented piece where they have to dance inside a 12- by 12-foot space. It's almost like a small puzzle," Parsons said.
In contrast, Swing Shift is a powerhouse piece for the entire company that highlights each dancer, propelled by the Ahn Trio's interpretation of Bunch's percussive, jazzy music.
"It's basically a free-for-all with different couples that exchange roles," Parsons said. "That score just caught my ear very quickly. . . . It was not an easy one to make. There was a lot of give-and-take with the dancers. They gave a lot of input. It's a constant journey."
Parsons, 44, grew up in Kansas City, Mo., where he performed as a gymnast. He took dance classes to develop his gymnastic skills. At 14, he choreographed a dance to rock 'n' roll music while jumping on a trampoline.
After performing with the Missouri Dance Theater, he moved to New York in 1982. He soon became an understudy and later the principal dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company. He worked sporadically with choreographer Moses Pendleton in Pendleton's dance-illusionist company, MOMIX, before starting his dance company in 1987.
"The Parsons Dance Company is definitely about developing a style," he said. "That's an important thing in the arts, to have different voices, different people making up different languages, and the language of dance is a tough one to make up."
Preview
Parsons Dance Company with the Ahn Trio, 8 p.m. Friday, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. $32-$36. Toll-free 1-800-826-9303.
