Things That Go Unsaid
Click Here for the full Boston Herald Review
November 7-8, 2003, Green St. Studios,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Photos by Randy Collura
Conversation Out Of Silence (2002)
Donovan says her dances focus on spirituality and transformation, and the latter quality is especially prominent in ``Conversation Out of Silence,'' an ensemble work arranged into three distinct sections set to a sound montage by Gregg Bendian. The opening is a set of phrases performed by three separate groups. In the second section, the women restate that material as an ensemble, and then the dance finishes with delightful chaos as all of the phrases mingle and co-exist. The piece recalls the essence of Graham's early ``Primitive Mysteries,'' though Donovan's impetus here is the social dynamics of a Quaker meeting.
-The Boston Herald
Plunge (1997)
Seven dancers punctuating Strauss's ''Blue Danube Waltz'' with the sound of seven plungers thwunking off the floor, off a thigh, off a partner's hip. The invention and Donovan's disregard here for meaning are thoroughly refreshing."
-The Boston Globe
Any Unraveling (2003)
"Any Unraveling," was one of five pieces presented by Kelley Donovan and Dancers last night at Green Street Studios in Cambridge. A sort of movement episode without beginning or end, it demonstrates Donovan's ability to engage her audience without resorting to narrative, sentimentality or predictable politics. How refreshing!
-The Boston Herald
Things That Go Unsaid (Premiere)
Things That Go Unsaid performed to music by Kristen Miller.
No Such Thing As A True Story (2003)
Kelley Donovan's fiery ``No Such Thing as a True Story,'' a dynamic pageant performed by eight accomplished women, set to a mystifying recorded sound score by Brian King. Donovan appeared intermittently in the piece, opening and closing it with a forceful solo performed on a diagonal line, and dressed in a magnificent shimmering silver costume by Sarah Chapman. Donovan is a highly charismatic performer, and you could feel the energy in the house augment suddenly whenever she appeared onstage. She's given her dancers challenging and vigorous material that succeeds because it develops a restricted set of movement ideas and its concomitant floor patterns, the company looked radiant, even a bit decadent, in Chapman's glittering lace costumes." "
-Tedd Bale
e-mail kdonovan@mit.edu.