LIMÓN DANCE COMPANY

The José Limón Dance Company, under the Artistic Direction of Dante Puleio, did not disappoint on Thursday, November 7, during the 2024 season at the Joyce Theater. 

Five works were offered, three of Limón’s classics, one of co-founder and mentor Doris Humphrey, and a premiere by contemporary choreographer Kayla Farrish. The company, in exquisite technical form, expressed the humanity and passion of its founder, in timeless works, ranging from 1931 to today.

The Traitor (1954), choreographed by Limón, accompanied by composer Gunther Schuller’s Symphony for Brass and Percussion, expressed feelings of suspicion, betrayal, group allegiance and behaviors towards a leader, and a disenfranchised “outsider.”  Limón’s original intention was to depict his dismay over the proceedings of the McCarthy era witch-hunt of artists and politicians. How prophetic and timely it still is today as we witness political upheaval around the globe and in our own country. The group surrounds itself in, around, and under a dark archaic bridge with many arches, (original set design by Paul Trautvetter).  Nicholas Ruscica as The Traitor portrays self loathing and doubt in a stunning solo, until he finally hangs himself with a rope at the end. 

Scherzo, (1955) a light, playful piece of LImón’s follows the sobriety of The Traitor. Originally choreographed on students at Juilliard, Kieran King, live percussionist, follows three male dancers, Joey Columbus, Johnson Gua, and Eric Parra as they playfully cavort on stage, circling, clapping, tapping, stomping, shuffling, to Kieran’s sounds, in camaraderie.  And then a drum is added as a partner on stage.  It is tossed one to the other in rhythmic sequence, accompanying each others’ movements until it is pitched into the wings as they exit.

A World Premiere by guest choreographer Kayla Farrish, The Quake That Held Them All Together, featured twelve dancers dressed in golden brown long culottes with grayish wool vests (Costumer Márion Talán de La Rosa), and lit with golden light by Katie Whittemore. Farrish has based this work on a lost work of Limón’s, created in 1951. The company passes through changing relationships, accumulating, dispersing, connecting, falling apart; expressing anxiety, hysteria, compassion. This engaging twenty-five minute work uses the strength, fluidity, and rapport between dancers as they seek to find common ground in an unpredictable society.

Doris Humphrey, recognized as the founder of modern dance, and original Artistic Director of the early Limón company, is credited with the development of the technique of “fall and recovery,” integral to the company today. Her 1931 Two Ecstatic Themes solo is danced by Jessica Sgambelluri, dressed in a white form fitting long skirted dress by Pauline Lawrence. She starts in a wide 2nd position shape, slowly spiraling and arching her torso with such poise and strength, then eventually spinning and sinking to her knees, fluid through her body and in space, the essence of Humphrey’s profound control and approach to the body. 

Limón’s masterpiece, Missa Brevis (1958), meaning “small mass” closed the evening, a grand statement of his love for humanity and its endeavor to find hope against all odds. With a stirring organ mass in 8 parts, by Zoltán Kodály, meaning “In a Time of War,”(written while in exile in a convent during the occupation of Budapest in WW2), the piece begins with the entire company in a center circle, holding hands in community. The dance evolves in moods with the music: three trios dance reverence; a single man is a “seeker;” a woman is lifted by the group as a deceased body; women are lifted as angels as the choir sings “Hosana in Excelsis;” a group frames a man in black as he beseeches them to care; ending with all reaching to heaven, appealing to God as the choir sings “Amen, Amen.” Limón’s creativity, religious leanings, and love for humanity found its match with Kodály’s stirring music: a prayer for peace for us to walk away with as we face a world of unrest and distrust.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Mary Seidman