reviewvancouver: Dancers Dancing, Extra Extra

The program was put on by A Dancers Dancing Production and choreographed by Vancouver native, Judith Garay who is also the artistic director of the company.

Garay has had an accomplished dance career. She was a principal dancer with the famed Martha Graham Dance Company and has created more than forty dance works in Canada, the USA and Holland.

The performance is a series of frenetic, lively dance pieces. Each is a separate work but blends almost without interruption into the next work.

Thus there is a flow to the work, like looking through a constantly changing kaleidescope.

The company of young dancers: Vanessa Goodman, Bevin Poole, Robert Halley, Cai Clover, Janine Kamonzeki, Eloi Homier, Jaezila Crittenden, Jessie Kwan, Felicia Lau and Erika Mitsuhashi are strong, athletic and technically solid.

Vanessa Goodman, Cai Glover and Jessie Kwan looked particularly impressive.

A fast paced, hip music score by Ted Hamilton kept the right tempo for a contemporary work that is highly energetic.

Special mention must go to costume designer Margaret Jenkins for the creative and expressive costumes that enhanced the performance ambiance.

Dancing without the support of an elaborate set and orchestra and upon a stage so close to the audience can be challenging but it is a more intimate and honest form of dance.

The dancers of Extra, Extra showed admirable intensity and form and with thier performance, took modern dance another creative step forward.