DANCE REVIEW
CJESSICA LANG DANCE COMPANY TAPAC, April 20 horeographer Jessica Lang founded a dance company in 2011, based in Long Island City, New York. Since then she has received several awards and important grants and has appeared in several American festivals and on respectable stages. She is doing unusually well and seems to be well-connected.
Like most American modern and contemporary companies, JLC follows the traditional evening structure of several pieces of between five to 20 minutes each, a notion local companies discarded a few decades ago.
The main advantage of presenting several shorter pieces is a chance to show diversity, touching on several artistic issues without the need to form a fully cohesive statement.
Lang, who took the more conservative approach regarding structure, opened with a short male solo (the two-page program skipped the dancer’s names) with ultra-conservative modern dance in the happy-golucky style of bygone days. Another mini-solo was performed by company’s best (but anonymous) female dancer, dressed in enormously long skirt. The basic image is strong, so Lang didn’t have to invest in choreography. Waving, lovely arms and slow pivoting sufficed, resulting in effective yet banal visuals with little substance.
During the evening one could see that Lang aspires to more than easily digestible tidbits, and seeks diversity and challenge. Her Thousand Yard Stare deals with post traumatic stress syndrome in soldiers, with interesting regimented compositions. She flirts with video art juxtaposition with stage movements in the last two works, and both had good moments.
Six works later, however, Lang had failed to hand in a clear, viable artistic approach, although her dancers did their fair share.