Ririe-Woodbury's 'Gravity' is uplifting

"GRAVITY," Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Dec. 16, additional performances through Dec. 19 (801-355-2787)

SALT LAKE CITY — "Gravity" is one of the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company's more innovative productions.

Not only is it an evening's worth of artistic director Charlotte Boye-Christensen's emotive choreography, but it also features live music from the Figura Ensemble, featuring artists from the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen.

The Figura Ensemble performs three works. Two are instrumental pieces, and the other is the 18-minute "Gravity," a collaboration with the RWDC dancers, conceived by Figura Ensemble's director Jens Horsving.

World-premiere "Gravity" is divided into six parts. Each segment deals with an element of gravity, ranging from momentum to black holes to orbits. Through Boye-Christensen's captivating choreography, the dancers attempt to find ways to defy gravity by their high leaps and effortless lifts.

The sometimes cavernous and intriguing music performed by the Figura Ensemble highlights the performance. In fact, there are times when the audience members have to choose whether or not to watch the dancing or the musicians.

Still, the audience is able to see two of the musicians take on solo outings. Although these works are instrumental, the musicians — bassist Jesper Egelund and clarinetist Anna Klett, who perform Steingrimur's "Hit Upon" and Derek Bermel's "Thracian Sketches," respectively — seem to do a little interpretive dance as they push and pull their notes from their instruments during these innovated and challenging compositions.

Opening the overall production is Boye-Christensen's 1998 burst of energy, "Stirrings." The company — Erin Lehua Brown, Caine Keenan, T.J. Spaur, Prentice Whitlow and Elizabeth Kelley Wilberg, along with RWDC veteran Jo Blake — take the stage in a study of dynamic precision. There is no wasted movement, and they all compliment each other.

"Stirrings," Boye-Christensen's urban art-inspired 2008 work uses music and abstract video to highlight the angles, lunges and extensions of the dancers' sinewy bodies.

Closing the production is Boye-Christensen's more recent work, "Turf," created earlier this year.

The piece is an abstract study of possession and ownership. Throughout the work, the men and women wind up dancing some of the same movements, albeit at different times. The only difference in the execution is the difference in gender. And the juxtaposition is interesting in the way the masculine and feminine idiosyncrasies emphasize different aspects of the work.

Boye-Christensen's understanding of the way a body moves shines through each of the dances. Her use of arm and leg extensions, posture lines, and movement dynamics keep the audience's attention. When the live music of the Figura Ensemble is added, the production gains a new performance dimension.

e-mail: scott@desnews.com