Michael Reckord, Gleaner Writer

Surprise and 'attitude'! Stella Maris Dance Ensemble 15th Anniversary Season of Dance, The 2008 Repertoire, held at Little Theatre, Tom Redcam Avenue, on Saturday, October 4. From the dance 'Liza'.

The concepts of at least two of the five dances making up this year's Stella Maris Dance Ensemble's season of dance could be developed into works making profound, even philosophical, statements. Instead, those dances, like the others, ended up being simply entertainment.

If the aim of the choreographers was simply to please the patrons they succeeded. The audience members at the Little Theatre, Tom Redcam Avenue, St Andrew, on Saturday, October 4, enjoyed themselves immensely, cheering and applauding every dance with gusto.

There was much to applaud, not the least of which was the fact that the company was celebrating its 15th anniversary with another annual dance season. Artistic director MoniKa Lawrence and her team deserve high commendation for their stick-to-itiveness and business acumen.

General quality

Will he be accepted or rejected?

More specifically, the general quality of the production was good. The costumes and décor, mainly by Lawrence and Denise Robinson, were always attractive. The music was varied, tuneful and appropriate. The dancers were competent and disciplined and clearly enjoyed themselves onstage as much as their fans did in the audience.

Lawrence choreographed three of the dances - Body Voices, which opened the evening's programme, Liza and Africa Nite, the closing dance. Ballet master Abeldo 'Tokie' Gonzales choreographed the second item, Encounters, a new dance, and guest choreographer Dr Kariamu Welsh Asante choreographed Antebellum Blues, which also premiered this year.

Body Voices, a 2007 dance described in the programme as "an organic exploration of identifying self through movement - utilising symbols and cross-fertilisation of techniques and styles", is certainly eclectic. One might even say it lacks unity, for though an African ethos pervades the episodes and movements, other connections are not clear. After the curtain closed on the dancers there was a powerful three-minute drumming 'epilogue' by Ouida Lewis and Calvin Mitchell that earned extra applause.

Light-hearted, celebratory

The male and female forms combine dramatically. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

Encounters features a soloist (Monique Spence on that night) flirting for a time with several men. Happily, eventually, other pretty women enter and every one gets a dance partner. It's very light-hearted and celebratory.

Liza, originally created for the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC) by Lawrence and reworked for the Ensemble in 2002, is a delightful, complex Jamaican dance-drama. The story is based on three folk songs, Linstead Market, Liza and Mout a Massie. Lawrence's Liza is "a young girl who likes to gossip ... a warm-hearted country girl who is full of zest for life ... but who is also bored with the tranquility of rural life ... gives in to the attraction of the bright lights of the city, but is overcome by the rapid pace of the city".

The story takes us from a market scene - beautifully stylised in white - to a bus stop, then on to a crowded bus and eventually back to the market. We meet all manner of city characters and Liza meets a man whom, after the hilarious intervention of a rival at the wedding ceremony, she marries.

In the second half came Antebellum Blues, which features beautiful period costumes and shows young women dreaming about dancing as they sew their mistresses' ball gowns with the hoop skirts. Creative lighting would have helped us to distinguish between reality and daydream.

More potential

Both this dance and African Nite have more potential that was explored. Antebellum Blues has the feel of the first movement of a longer work (think Gone With The Wind). African Nite, about a man who "goes for healing in a balm yard and embarks on a spiritual journey in which he gains renewed strength and knowledge from his ancestors and is later ordained as the new shepherd of a revival church", sounds like a serious work. In fact, it is only half-serious; the other half is very comical. Because of the energy of the dancers, the driving music, the colour and the speed of the piece, it is (that word again) entertaining. Without the mocking tone of the sermon written by Orville Hall, it could easily have been more.

The company's patron, Wayne Chen, notes in his message that the ensemble has not achieved a certain "international recognition and celebrity". True, but the work of the last 15 years shows it is headed in the right direction.