GREEN+MEDCALF MOVEMENT PROJECT
Greene + Medcalf Movement Project is the area’s newest contemporary dance company. It kicked off its formation with a benefit, A SPRING FLING THING: an evening of live music and dance.
The event introduced Terence Greene and Michael Medcalf, the company’s choreographers and dancers. The award winning duo are Cleveland natives who met and worked together at the Cleveland School for the Arts. Each went their separate ways, learning their craft and dancing with some of the countries’ leading companies. They have decided to reunite and use this area as their home base. Greene was recently appointed as resident choreographer for Verb Ballets. Medcalf, the former leader of Cleveland Contemporary /Dance Theatre, is pursuing an advanced degree, but will be returning to the area for rehearsals and performances.
The evening consisted of SATCHIDANADA, a balletic/gymnastic piece danced by Medcalf with slow controlled movements, displaying high levels of balance and grace. REFLECTIONS OF, an homage to teachers, was choreographed by Greene. It found the duo intertwining and playing off each other, playing off their physical size differences with magnetic control. Greene used a repeated movement to feed and draw symbolic knowledge out of Medcalf. The final dance, FULL CIRCLE, was a collaborative piece in which the duo improvised movement based on the singing of Reggie Kelly and the music of Hubb’s Grove. Kelly, the musical sounds of Robert “Hubb” Hubbard Jr., Tony Watson Jr., Walter Barnes Jr., Stephen Fowler, guitarist Robert Sharpe, and the dynamic singing and scatting of Chimera Wilson, were program performers.
The evening was filled with joyousness. The large, mainly African American audience, fully participated through call-and-response interactions between the audience and the performers, and interjected appropriate standing ovations.
Capsule judgement: A SPRING FLING THING was a great kickoff to GREENE+MEDCALF MOVMENT PROJECT which promises to be an exciting addition to the Cleveland dance scene.
