B-boyz bring streetscapes to stage

Tuesday, November 21, 2006
BY ROBERT JOHNSON
Star-Ledger Staff

DANCE

Hip-hop seems to be everywhere. A living art still practiced in the urban neighborhoods where it was born, it became slick enough for MTV long ago. Now also dignified and appearing on the concert stage, it persists as street-corner entertainment wherever a nickel stands to be earned.

On Sunday, for instance, a dance fan in transit could pass from the Park Performing Arts Center in Union City, where the professional B-boyz of Rennie Harris/Puremovement were the star attraction of "Hip-Hop & B*yond," presented by the Center for Modern Dance Education, to the New York City subway system, where entrepreneurs were performing on the uptown A.

Nothing quite beats the thrill of seeing two grown men locked together to form a wheel that's rolling down the aisle of a crowded subway car. These courageous if anonymous artists also launched themselves in midair in the space that quickly cleared near the center door. They balanced in tricky handstands as the old rolling stock (perhaps already in service in 1981, when "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" made its vinyl debut), rocked and swayed toward the next station.

On the other hand, the subway performance was short, with sight-lines blocked by other passengers, and the sound quality, though undeniably real, did not meet audiophile standards. It's worth spending a few bucks to see Rennie Harris and his virtuosos translate hip-hop for the stage, recreating an informal gathering of homies who take turns showing off in "P-Funk," making their bodies undulate as they dive to the floor, jolted by the rhythm or drawing out a smooth sliding step.

The theater also permits Harris, whose group is from Philadelphia, to make a social statement. In "March of the Antmen," a hip-hop requiem, gangstas packing invisible heat crawl on their bellies and stalk through No Man's Land, where a murder suddenly dyes billows of smoke the color of blood.

"Continuum" offers a parade of show-stopping solos. Sneakers swivel and the dancers' loose clothing flaps and ripples, registering the activity of wiry muscles underneath. Popping and locking, a man folds and rearranges his limbs, like a mannequin with well-oiled hinges. Another spins crazily on his shoulders, then comes to a stop with his legs crossed in a cheeky pose of relaxation. The head-spin is only the most flamboyant item in this company's repertoire of phenomenal daring.

On Sunday, Rennie Harris/Puremovement shared the stage with the vibrant Seventh Principle Performance Company of Newark, which performed the West African "Melange," giving viewers a chance to observe the marvelous continuity of African culture. The dazzling speed and rhythmic play of the West African dancers' hands and skittering feet carried over into the hip-hop portion of the program, as did a tendency to step outside the rhythm and comment on the performance with a knowing look. Even when an individual stood apart from the rapid stream of music, however, this troupe led by Candace Hundley Kamate seemed to shelter beneath a larger, global rhythm.

The Center for Modern Dance Education in Hackensack also featured the students of the CMDE Repertory Dancers and comic soloist Claire Porter. In her hysterical "Fund Raiser," Porter took the role of a demented development director, who, with rubbery limbs and lips moistened by her sales pitch, would stop at nothing in her "naked appeal" to extort contributions from a reluctant private sector.

The public sector, or at least this audience, was ecstatic.

Robert Johnson writes about dance for The Star-Ledger. He may be reached at rjohnson@starledger.com.