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A nearly full house enjoyed a vibrant, otherworldly experience this Halloween weekend at Yardley Hall as the Johnson County Community College’s Performing Arts Series hosted Quixotic, Kansas City’s own modern multi-dimensional ensemble. Quixotic’s original production Lux Esalare was equally breathtaking and gritty—a cohesive and successful fusion of dance, music, and light.

Opening piece “Transforma Lux” began with a persistent, catchy cello line as a single spotlight on the smoky stage supported a ballet-inspired duet performed by main “characters” Logan Pachciarz and Rachel Coats. Coats in a wispy, translucent white costume and Pachciarz in black leather pants, vest, and mask, the pair moved in effortless harmony both here and during their second duet later in the program, “Entrance.”

The lighting for Lux Esalare was compelling, surprising, colorful, and effective. Light shapes included pillars, multiple points projected from one source out to audience, strobes, reflections, jumping spotlights, wide planes broken by dancers. The muted color scheme of silver, black, cool blues and purples, and off-whites with the occasional bright, royal crimson and burning amber enhanced the futuristic look of the dancers’ tight black S&M-esque outfits.

Quixotic’s exciting aerials are a major part of the appeal. Hanging from two black straps attached to the ceiling, BJ Erdmann appeared to fly above Chelsea Teel in “Dreaming Apparatus,” a vertical duet so to speak. Teel herself showed amazing physical confidence on her aerial solo, “Apparition,” at one point hanging upside-down in the highest area of the space on one strap by just one ankle. “Siren’s Coil” was the first work that included the full company, with all lines cohesive and none drawing away from aerialist Laura Jones’ harness-assisted flying, flipping, and spinning.

“Lapsis” let the light dance around Pachciarz. He moved minimally—slightly writhing in place while spotlights, coordinated with the music, jumped to him from different points in the hall. In groups of duos and trios the dancers crawled, spun, and echoed movements from earlier pieces before an abrupt cut-to-black which exposed one aerialist who jumped into full swing towards the audience on one strap to a strobe light in the most exhilarating ending of the night.

A warm shade of amber covered the stage in the “Solus,” which Brittany Duskin dominated entirely with her rigid yet fluid movement. Charles Martin joined halfway through, enhancing and complementing Duskin’s part. The intermittent drumset outbursts were effective in building momentum and intensity, if earsplitting to some audience members.

The outstanding “Reflections” highlighted the talents of hand balancer Olaf Triebel. His impeccably controlled strength, balance, and precision were staggeringly impressive. Accompanied by a lovely and mournful string trio, Triebel held artistic poses balancing on several mid-height sticks. Light bounced off large silver jewel-shaped mirrors to the audience in all directions. He contorted and raised himself, moved from one stick to another, and spun on the sticks while holding himself on one hand in a split position.

Video was used subtly yet suitably throughout. “Conscience” with dancer Ronnie T. Thomas featured a distorted projection which echoed Thomas’ beautiful and expressive dance moves after he collapsed to center stage. On “Space Clocks,” a glowing female spectre morphed out of an image of sparkly falling snow while main character Pachciarz danced below to raindrop-like music. The most extensive video was part of “All We Know,” showing melancholy images of our main characters in black and white—a vague and distant dream. This piece was a feature for multi-instrumentalist Laura Scarborough on vocals and percussionist Brandon Draper on vibraphone.

Quixotic possesses an extremely talented roster of musicians. The music was tight and aptly fit the show’s visual aspects the listener could easily forget that there were live musicians on stage. Still perfectly unified with all other elements, the music naturally blended fervent, driving industrial beats with organic, velvety ambient sounds. While the music was certainly arresting and oftentimes tranquil, the volume was loud overall. Quixotic faced this problem even more so at the Madrid earlier this summer.

Scarborough is clearly valuable and vital to Quixotic’s creative musical force and definitely soulful and dramatic on stage. However her voice, while basically pleasant, is breathy and doesn’t have a deep strength I would like to hear. The ensemble’s mix and electronic processing also hurt comprehension of any diction and lyric. Scarborough’s physical presence was only distracting on “Into the Light,” during which she slinked around the stage, drawing the eye away from the aerialist.

Lead violinist Shane Borth was himself another “character” in the production, a gothic minstrel of sorts, especially brilliant on his solos “Spiraling the Human Chord” and “The Architect.” Borth’s sinuous bowing, excellent intonation, and rapid plucking were stirring, with just the right amount of processing and reverb. 

Kansas City is a town overly eager to grant standing ovations, many of which are of questionable worthiness. But Quixotic earned its standing ovation Friday night. This local treasure gave just about as flawless and thrilling a performance as you could hope to witness.

REVIEW:
JCCC Performing Arts Series
Quixotic presents “Lux Esalare”
Friday, October 29, 2010 (Reviewed)
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Yardley Hall, Carlsen Center
12345 College Boulevard
Overland Park, KS
For more information visit www.jccc.edu and www.quixoticfusion.com

Top Photo by Kay Connelly

By Kristin Shafel Omiccioli

Editorial Assignments Executive Editor; Traditional and New Classical Contributor

Kristin Shafel Omiccioli, a native of Madison, WI, holds composition degrees (M.M., B.M.) from the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance. Kristin's compositions have been performed at national and regional new music festivals and conferences throughout the United States. During her time at UMKC, Kristin also focused on double bass performance and arts administration. She was a student leader and performer in many of the Conservatory's student organizations and ensembles, including Musica Nova, Composers' Guild, the Conservatory Student Association, the orchestras, and Wind Symphony. Her composition instructors were James Mobberley, Paul Rudy, Zhou Long, and Chen Yi, and her bass instructor was Sue Stubbs. Formerly a guitarist, Kristin performed with big bands and her own jazz combo in Madison, WI, having studied jazz guitar and theory with Roger Brotherhood in Madison and jazz voice and theory with Hal Melia in Kansas City at UMKC.

Kristin enjoys being active in the performing arts community. She has volunteered with the Chamber Music Society of Kansas City and Charlotte Street Foundation, and has played in the bass section of the Northland Symphony Orchestra, among other bass gigs around the metro. Kristin currently serves as principal bass for the Kansas City Civic Orchestra and Heritage Philharmonic, and is a section bassist for Kinnor Philharmonic. She joined the writing staff of KCMetropolis.org in February 2010 and has been KCM’s executive editor since July 2011. Read her blog at mylittleheartmelodies.com.