Kim Robards spent this year working with 10 people she describes as the strongest ensemble in the history of her modern dance company.
Robards plans to flaunt that connectedness Saturday when her dancers cap a busy season with a show in which two exuberant ensemble works bookend offbeat duets and a world premiere.
Robards chose the 4-year-old work “Full Moon Rising” to launch the show. Set to Ernest Bloch’s “Concerto Grosso No. 1,” this dance that feels as hopeful as a solstice celebration is juxtaposed with stoic, contemplative music.
“This feels like a time capsule,” Robards said in a statement about the work created in 2001. “It’s as though the innocence of our age has since been swallowed up, a quality my more recent work can’t help but reflect.”
Saturday’s concert unfolds with “Pushed and Pulled,” a duet conceived by company dancer David Reuille, whose experience includes stints with the Parsons Dance Company and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. Reflecting on the piece earlier this week, Reuille said its energy came from living in New York City, where the push and pull of the city is constant.
Reuille sprinkled the dance, which draws on music from 2003’s “The String Quartet Tribute to Radiohead,” with feisty hip and shoulder swivels. He performs the duet with Robards, who said she likes the dance because of its interplay between her full-bodied style and his more regimented, sequential movement. “We bring things out in each other,” she said.
Reuille’s piece sets up the world premiere, “Kym Gym Megalomania.” The title of this company project was adapted from the socially conscious radio hit, “Megalomaniac,” penned by the California surf metal band Incubus. Here, an already enlightened music selection is enhanced by The Ya Baby String Quartet.
At the beginning of the dance, the audience sits in darkness, hearing only lush, frenetic chamber rock. Then a spotlight darts from one dancer to the next as ensemble members and students from the company’s intensive summer professional training program perform maverick marching steps. “I envision it like a sophisticated runner’s warm-up,” Robards said.
Later, dancers flood the stage with a visual feast of fast-paced jumps and punches, creating tension and drama amongst characters. The ensemble reportedly raised a collective eyebrow when the choreographer first explained her concept for “Megalomania” but grew to embrace the dance because of the meaning that’s born from its chaos and confusion.
“In Quietude” is the name of the male duet that follows. Viewers struck by the curiosity of two men performing a sensual duet will dismiss that notion when they take in the passionate athleticism performed by top-notch dancers Reuille and Lance Hardin.
“The male duet is very intimate,” said company dancer and associate executive director LaRana Skalicky. “It’s a reflection of the intimate side a lot of men have but are afraid to express.”
The concert concludes with “Beyond the Barrier,” a dance the company premiered at the start of the season. Described by the choreographer as a portrait of individuals and communities overcoming discrimination, the dance opens with a solo that is pure Kim Robards: flowing movement that builds into relentless energy with only moments of respite.
Staff writer Elana Ashanti Jefferson can be reached at 303-820-1957 or ejefferson@denverpost.com.
Kim Robards Dance
ANNUAL SUMMER CONCERT|Lakewood Cultural Center, 470 S. Allison Parkway; 8 p.m. Saturday|$18-$25|303-987-7845 or lakewood.org.
