REVIEW: Rennie Harris Puremovement
Rennie Harris Puremovement was in town last evening to perform. I happy to be invited by The Ordway to check out the show.
Puremovment is described as dance inspired by African-American traditions of the past along with a new generation of Hip Hop. Dr. Rennie Harris, the director, explains in one of the video interludes, that he doesn’t prefer a constant “level 10” performance, but likes to explore levels of intensity closer to the range of one through seven. I consider this an accurate reflection of the performance. The show was not a jam-packed spectacle full of clip-worthy moves and lightning-speed aerials, but instead featured a lot of smooth, cool, almost R&B inspired movements. The minimalistic costumes, stage design and lighting were a dose of medicine to calm the modern, ADD-addled brain. The choreography took its time to build up to moments of awe and gave the audience time to take in the performance. It took me a while to adjust to the fact that I wasn’t going to be on the edge of my seat all evening, but once I did, I really enjoyed the show. The Puremeovement dancers are all quite talented and exude cool. Their performances were indeed hip and left me very inspired, as most of the dancing is that which you feel like you might, in some fantasy world, be able to achieve–if you just practice enough. Of course, most people could never dance as well as they do, but I know everyone in the audience wished they could and will probably do their best to mimic performances like Puremovement. During intermission, there were a lot of people dancing in the aisle ways. I was tempted to be one of them but saved my performance for the bathroom mirror as I was washing up last night–even then I could still feel the cool deep into my core.
Unfortunately, Rennie Harris Puremovement was only here for one night in St. Paul. Click for a list of upcoming Target Dance series performances at The Ordway. It’s my experience that the Target(r) Dance Series at The Ordway are always fantastic!