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Abigail Hosein is a miniaturist. She is also a college dance instructor. The two don’t necessarily work all that well together. One demands focused attention to detail, the other a willingness to showcase undeveloped dancers to the best of their abilities. Given those inherent limitations, Hosein’s concert over the Easter weekend offered a well structured, varied evening of dance.
The program opened and closed with works Hosein created on her Santa Clara University students, but not before presenting these junior performers in an elaborately evolving “spiders net” on the staircase to the second story lobby. “The First Piece”, appropriate to a program dedicated to chaos, featured the students in set and improvised sections taking over the theater. For the finale, “Tupelos, Barns and Alligator Farms”, an extended romp in which some of the more advanced dancers performed small solos, appeared to have been set in country dance hall. Each of the eleven dancers had developed a persona—shy, rambunctious, a flirt. Chairs served as props; the clouds of overlapping duets suggested youthful exuberance. While students may need performing opportunities and it’s gratifying to see the next generation of dancers coming along—some actually with talent—these two pieces were definitely of the recital variety with no place on a professional stage.
Hosein’s choreography for her own company, however, intrigued. She works on an intimate level—short duets, solos, and one trio. Though danced in a contemporary vein, they reminded me of Leonid Jacobson who also choreographed on a small scale. Hosein does good work within the parameters she sets for herself.
For this program she divided the program into works of “internal chaos” and “controlling chaos”—distinctions not all that relevant or even visible. More important was that the choreographer employed a well-chosen imaginative vocabulary which produced choreographies with emotional resonance. There was wholeness about each piece which makes one look forward to where else Hosein will take her endeavors.
In the tightly structured “Approximate Proximity” Hosein, a tall dancer with a shaved head partnered short, stocky Rebecca Gilbert in a kneeling duet. Tiny reaches and gestures expanded and contracted accordion-like until the increasing hostility sent Gilbert storming off-stage. “As the Owl Tremors,” looked at the growth of a relationship after Amanda Whitehead accidentally bumped into Ambika Dee who had popped up from nowhere. At first trembling with uncertainty and ambiguity, the women delicately connect with each other through finding a common physical language.
Hosein is a long-limbed reasonably expressive dancer but the three strung-together solos by Nina Haft, Wendy Rein and Shaunna Vella for “Chaos Triptych” did not amount to much beyond showcasing Hosein. Her own trio, the new “Choose Your Own Title,” however, had a pleasant sense of the unexpected and accidental about it for much of its duration though its ideas eventually ran dry.
The premieres of the three after-intermission controlling-chaos solos stepped into a more theatrically telling arena. Each piece was concise, navigating emotionally ambiguous terrain with considerable aplomb.
“Solo For the Self/Restricted II” tied Whitehead to four rubber bands attached to the floor. Though they, of course, ultimately restricted her movements, their range was remarkably ample. What at first had looked like a gimmicky idea turned out to be an emotionally nuanced portrayal of anguish, persistence and strength. This was a case of an obvious metaphor well explored.
A mix of seriousness and hilarity, “Addicted to Wolves” showcased the splendid Gilbert as Little Red Riding Hood being lured into the forest (projected on the floor). Hoise used Tom Waits’ “Now She’s Dead” to delicious effect for this study of internal and external seduction.
Addiction of a different kind was the topic of the slightly melodramatic “EffrexorTrazadoneBuprionTemazapamKolonopin Or I Do.” A bride (Mica Miro), surrounded by dozens of empty pill containers, is trying to decide between two types of being hooked—pills versus marriage. A chandelier, at the end of the runway, beckoned temptingly. Its lampshades, it turns out are empty pill bottles. Miro dipped and blundered between these two unattractive choices, stuffing her gown with bottles, biting into a lampshade. In the end she closed her eyes and numbly nodded, and we never learned which way the decision went.
2009 - "u n d i r e c t e d "
 Audience feedback from the CounterPULSE Blog
on ahdanco's co-production with groupA
"powerful, joyful, emotional, beautiful, phenomenal energy!"
"It was amazing! I liked all the humor. Also, the multimedia aspects. I felt like I personally knew the dancers, Thank you!"
"Some moments brought me to tears...will definitely see them again"
"awesome"
"Superb!"
2005 Fall Season
"Hosein is to be applauded" for a "delightful and ambitious... celebration of the skilled physicality present in this group...particularly pleasing."
-- Voice of Dance
"...her dances probe the unconscious forces that drive our human behavior. Hosein’s choreography at times accesses disturbing images but always with an understanding that vulnerability is an essential aspect of the human condition. "
"[Hosein's] choreography incorporates inventive, kinesthetically satisfying choreography that unfolds effortlessly in series of abstract images, which through design, rhythmic, and spatial components create a satisfying unified whole"
-- David Popalisky, SCU
Photo of Julia Marx
Photographer: Molly DeCoudreaux
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