A giant half-cylinder rocking sometimes gently, sometimes ferociously, as dancers slide, run and leap across its shifting flat deck, clinging precariously as it flips up and flying off at times as it swings down.
A suspended spinning ball with a male dancer so elegantly posed from it that the two entities seem to merge into a streamlined whole – a kind of kinetic, figurative chandelier.
Pegs jut from a slightly inclined climbing wall, which serves alternately as obstacle, shelter and snare as dancers climb it, slide down it and entangle themselves on it.
These were among the unexpected and sometimes astonishing images that unfolded Saturday evening during Diavolo’s sold-out performance in Gates Concert Hall at the University of Denver’s Newman Center for the Performing Arts.
Founded in 1992, the Los Angeles-based company hovers – sometimes precariously – among the worlds of dance, circuses and gymnastics. Its 10 extraordinary talented members are variously dancers, gymnasts, actors and athletes.
Diavolo is perhaps best known for its use of fantastical, sometimes massive sets. They form the core of each piece, with collaboratively developed movement springing from these structures.
Because of the almost otherworldly tableaux the ensemble creates and its electrifying physicality, Diavolo has been compared to Cirque du Soleil. Solidifying the connection was artistic director Jacques Heim’s choreography for “KÀ,” a 2005
Cirque production.
As an acrobatic or circuslike show, Diavolo’s performance Saturday would be hard to top. From the first minute to the last, it provided thrills and provoked awe.
With impeccable precision and unflagging energy, the company executed headstands, leaps, flips and other combinations often from challengingly awkward or off-balance poses, ratcheting up the complexity as each work progressed.
To draw in the audience even more, Diavolo added a provocative element of danger. At several points in “Trajectoire” (1999), for example, a female dancer leaped at least 15 feet from the top of the set piece into the arms of two men below, eliciting gasps.
But as exciting as the ensemble might be for its daredevil feats, Diavolo often leaves much to be desired in the realm of dance.
While physicality and visual effects are obviously important, the art form, like any other, succeeds or fails on its emotional and intellectual content. Unfortunately, there was little of either Saturday.
Too often, Diavolo’s works are a kind of theme and variations: Like this trick? Well, here’s another that’s even more difficult. How about this one? There is no real beginning, middle or end. Often, the pieces just conclude arbitrarily.
Such deficiencies were especially apparent in “Phantome” (reworked 2005). It consists of family photos projected onto an isolated doorway, with portions of Henryck Gorecki’s wrenching Symphony No. 3 as accompaniment.
The solo piece is clearly supposed to evoke loss and nostalgia. But it had virtually no impact, because the movement did nothing to convey such feelings. It was just a series of emotionally empty acrobatics.
The only selection that truly succeeded as a dance work was “Trajectoire.” It possesses a true dramatic arc, culminating with a lone figure with outstretched arms at the top of piece’s boatlike structure – a moving symbol of triumph over adversity.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-820-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
