Theater review: Dynamic duos create modern dance for RDT's 'Charette'

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, Repertory Dance Theatre aims to bring the fun of dynamic duos to the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center.

At 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 11, the eight dancers of RDT will combine with 30 additional dancers from across the community to present “Charette,” a vivacious night of dance creation and fundraising. Audiences are invited behind the scenes to watch pairs of talented choreographers create original performance pieces in an hour or less.

“Ordinarily it takes three hours of rehearsal to create one minute of dance,” said Linda Smith, RDT’s artistic director, “but we are putting together five minutes pieces of dance in only one hour. It is stressful, but everybody loves it. It is about seeing the process and seeing how something can unfold and become delightful to watch in such a short time.”

“Charette” was born several years ago from the imagination of two of RDT’s own dancers, Nicholas Cendese and Nathan Shaw. As the company deliberated on how to create an annual fundraiser, Shaw and Cendese were inspired by a favorite television show.

“Nick and Nathan suggested we model a performance after the TV show ‘Iron Chef’ involving a secret ingredient and creating dance in record time,” Smith said.

In the television series, chefs are placed on the spot tasked with creating fabulous food in minimal time. Chefs are also delivered a secret ingredient – often something strange — that must be incorporated into the dish. Similarly, Shaw and Cendese thought that RDT could invite choreographers to create incredible modern dance with little or no pre-planning and be given a last minute idea or theme that had to be incorporated in the dance.

And to make the whole thing more exciting, audiences would be invited straight into the studio to watch the creations come to life.

“We felt audiences wanted to understand more about the mysterious art form of modern dance,” Smith said, “They needed that scary word ‘modern dance’ demystified. We wanted an event that would bring the audience closer to the art form in an entertaining way. We really want to let people know about the creative process.”