Costume designers shine in Stella Maris Dance Ensemble concert

The Hurricane Melissa gloom hanging over the island like thick, toxic smoke lifted temporarily for the audience at the Little Theatre on Saturday night. They enjoyed two hours of relief while attending the opening of the 32nd Stella Maris Dance Ensemble (SMDE) season of dance. Unfortunately, the season ended the following day, even as various technical experts and recovery managers predict that the “smoke” will linger for months.

The concert’s major delight was arguably the stunning costumes. While other important components — like the choreography and its execution by the dancers — deserve marks ranging from fair to good, the grades for the costumes would be “outstanding”. All making varied statements about the dances’ different themes, on the bodies of the nearly 30 performers, the outfits popped in all the colours of the rainbow, and then some. They ranged in size from revealing to voluminous.

There were six costume designers – Tony Wilson, Denise Francis-Robinson, Squad Barnes, Atira Robinson, Renee McDonald and Dr MoniKa Lawrence, the ensemble’s artistic director and co-founder. Like some of the others, Dr Lawrence doubled up as a choreographer. She created the evening’s final piece, Africa Nite, which was re-mounted by Wendi Hoo-Fatt, and was specially dedicated to the late dance researcher and administrator Dr Maria Smith.

Two of the concert’s 10 pieces were premieres — Moods, choreographed by Andre Hinds, with costumes by Lawrence and Robinson, and Becoming, choreographed by Dr Lawrence, with graphics by Barnes and costumes by Francis-Robinson. The former, a first-half item, is not moody at all, and the energetic performers dance around quite cheerfully, doing handstands, shoulder stands, running and spinning around the stage.

Half of the all-female group wear white short dresses and half wear brownish ones, all with colourful markings on the front. At the opening, the backdrop is a streaming rainbow of colours, another suggestion of joyousness.

Becoming, one of the five dances in the second half, is described in the printed programme as, “A journey through solitude, reflection and rebirth.” A complex work, it begins with a solo by a girl in a simple pink dress dancing to the song The Sounds of Silence. Over the course of the dance, more and more performers come on stage – not only dancers but two drummers as well. As the music becomes livelier, the stage becomes more crowded with people in quite elaborate costumes, and the sense of community grows stronger. The description has been demonstrated.

Odyssey (Lawrence, 2024) is another dance with a strong message: “Embracing environmental changes and co-existing with nature.” Against a backdrop showing videos of waves washing onto the shore, threatening men in black and women dressed in delicate pastel colours do battle for a while. Eventually, they discover a way to live in harmony, a fact illustrated by the end, which shows the two sets combining to lift one member high in the air.

Not all the dancers were in top shape, but two who were selected for solos earned loud applause as their graceful dances ended. In the first half of the programme, we saw Danielle Doyley dancing to Hinds’ Insatiable in a long, blue and white dress (by Barnes). The second solo, in the second half, was Lawrence’s Freedom, danced with equal elegance by Jaida Oliver in a pink dress, also designed by Barnes.

The two dance dramas – with individual, familiar characters and a storyline with a beginning, middle and end – elicited strong emotions from the audience. One was The Vow, choreographed and designed by McDonald, about a love triangle involving a man, his wife and his girlfriend. Both the clever plotting of the incidents in the relationships and the skill of the dancers showed that the man loved both women, and his final selection of one and the twist in the tale that quickly followed brought loud exclamations from some members of the audience. Quite short and with only three characters, it’s easy to mount – unlike the complex Africa Nite, which created the evening’s powerful climax. The work “Explores the journey of a man who goes for a healing in a balm yard and embarks on a spiritual journey in which he gains renewed strength and knowledge from his ancestors”. On stage were not only the company dancers but master drummer Calvin Mitchell and singers from Zion Rock Sacred Heart Christian Church.

Set mostly in a revival church yard, the 2004 work has several movements, each featuring dancers in different Francis-Robinson outfits, which got more and more elaborate as the work proceeded. It ended, unusually, with the initially depressed man actually preaching good news to the audience.

The dance and show as a whole left the audience looking and sounding happy. It came at a good time.

entertainment@gleanerjm.com