Review Missevich ‘Dance Fusion’

Press, 5 December 1989, Page 8

Review

Missevich ‘Dance Fusion’

“Dance Fusion,” The Missevich Academy of Dance, James Hay Theatre, December 4,5, 6. 7.30 p.m. to 10.45 p.m. Reviewed by Sherril Cooper. The Missevich Academy of Dance has aimed high with its end of year production, enlisting the skills of Anthony Taylor in drama production and Sylvia Vouless in national dance to enhance the considerable choreographic abilities of Taisia Missevich and Elizabeth Robinson.

The seven works, performed in the main by intermediate and senior students, covered an impressively wide range of dance styles and subjects. The programme opened with a rendition of “Hansel and Gretel” which unfolded in quaint and colourful manner like the very nicest of children’s story books. Junior students, each at their appropriate level of technique, portrayed with confident freedom of movement the orphans, birds, sandmen, and angels, dew fairies and children who featured so charmingly in the set pieces.

Nice touches like the flying sleeping bower and witches broom and the roles of Witch and parents being played by adults added effective contrast.

A dazzling change of mood full of sheer fun and pzazz of big band jazz musicians “gone a little potty” made Elizabeth Robinson’s Bonzo Dog Doo-dah Band a delight. But it was Pas Classique by Taisia Missevich, featuring her most accomplished students, which really put the stamp on an evening of high accomplishment. The 15 dancers displayed a clarity of execution and strength of pointe work which was offset by a lovely fluidity of port de bras. This classical ensemble had real polish and in their mastering of the bravura style these aspiring ballerinas, led by Emma Murray, knew what they were about.

In the second half this versatile team of dancers created with admirable maturity the jazz/ blues atmosphere called for by

Taisia Missevich’s “Mood indigo." The interplay of adult relationships in this piece gave rise to satisfying dances from Wendy Brough, Jeremy Dawson, Tania Amos, Jabono Tairo and Emma Murray, who contributed the solo choreography. In “Chequerboard,” Elizabeth Robinson explored in some depth feuding factions as represented by the black and white pieces of a chess set. With a strong feeling of today’s confused and angry world the young dancers achieved a disturbing reality. To round off the evening a series of folk dances from across the Soviet Union were striking in their apparent authenticity and precision. Sylvia Vouless has inspired in the students the vitality and village humour that brings national dance so amusingly to life.

Guided by Anthony Taylor’s expert hand this production has considerable polish, displaying attractively the high standards of the Missevich Academy of Dance.