I checked out Complexions last night and boy did I get a dose of dance at its best!
Complexions Contemporary Ballet hails from New York and is the love-child of Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson. Passionate artists from various disciplines, backgrounds and cultures are brought together not only to dance but to push the boundaries of creativity and inject a revived sense of energy and fun into our lives. Most importantly, they do all this without ever abandoning the roots of classical ballet.
The company takes advantage of various multi-media to appeal to this day and age and to push through innovation but to my relief, never quite manages to leave their dialogue with the past. The perfect example of this was the final act - an Ode to my all time favourite artist, Nina Simone. The score was awesome and the dancing was invigorating, inspirational and goose-bumply. It started with "My baby just cares for me" and morphed into "Sinnerman" before slowing it right down to "Blue Indigo" and then upping it again with a full remix of her songs. It was so beautiful I nearly cried.
The dancers were amazing, their bodies were beautiful and perfectly sculpted - the years of hard work is screamingly evident. But what I loved most about it was they had so much fun!! They loved every single moment of it and I could tell because I could smell their passion from where I was sitting and believe you me, I was a few rows back!
I highly recommend checking them out if they happen to be in your city or you happen to be in NYC.
Oh - and Desmond Richardson? Breathtakingly beautiful.
