BEST DANCE EVENT

Other companies have come and gone, but The Moving Current Dance Collective remains, bringing the dance-starved Tampa Bay area innovative modern movement by local and guest choreographers. In Out and About, four choreographers presented five separate pieces in which escape was often the subtext: escape from siblings, from the stressful noises of the outside world, and from dance itself. In ¨When I Rise,¨ choreographed by Cynthia Hennessy, several sisters awoke in a single bedroom, rolled and spun their wheeled beds around the room, pounced from one bed to the next, and generally expressed their frustration at having to share a single space. In ¨Presence in Absence,¨ the sounds of traffic, alarm clocks and babies crying propelled three dancers around the stage; then the confusion gave way to a tender duet, which was itself followed by a conciliatory return of the original dancers. In Hennessy´s ¨Wing Catchers,¨ dance became a metaphor for life´s monotonous, seemingly endless daily tasks. As dancers tried to flee the deadening routine, ¨wing catchers¨ kept throwing them back into the fray. Not every segment of the show was about escape, though. Michael Foley´s ¨The Bath¨ explored in loving detail the ritual of preparing for a bath, and Jennifer Nugent´s ¨Peal¨ gave us Nugent herself responding to an ever-intensifying sound of bells. Whatever the subject, Out and About reminded us that there are some ideas that only dance can express; and that Moving Current deserves our time and appreciation.