Luna Blog

Review in Dance Magazine

Posted November 17, 2008 9:15 AM in Reviews

Latin rhythms, balletic virtuosity, and choreographic depth combined in Luna Negra Dance Theater’s 10th-anniversary season opener, “Ciclos,” a provocative program that paid homage to the Latino heritage. From the percussive AviMar (a premiere by Francisco Aviña), to artistic director Eduardo Vilaro’s intensely emotional Deshár Alhát (also a premiere), to the lyrical arcs of José Limón’s 1956 There Is a Time, the 12 dancers performed with polish and artistic authority.


Movement mirrors sound in the surrealist dreamscape of AviMar, with haunting bells, a heartbeat, and mechanical sound effects igniting explosive group movement. Swiveling hips, flexed feet and punishing renversés rip bodies in and out of passionate couplings, evoking a mysterious world rife with sexual tension. The opening Magritte-like image—hands emerging from the waistbands of disembodied skirts—juxtaposes the human and other-worldly. We don’t quite know what we’re looking at until the skirts, with their flamenco flounce, evolve legs and finally hatch fully grown female bodies. Intensity builds through the men’s fiery surge of angular aggression and whole-body machismo, leading to the concealed entrance of a dominatrix ballerina wearing one pointe shoe and one combat boot, her macho consort barefoot and in red briefs. Their pas de deux, alternately passionate and combative, never lets up on athletic daring. Josh Preston’s stark lighting—floor to ceiling diagonal shafts—creates spectacular spatial focus for the driving ensemble movement.

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Meet the Artists

Joel Valentin-Martinez

Joel Valentin-Martinez

Choreographer

Joel Valentin-Martinez was born in Guadalajara, Mexico and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He initiated his theater and dance training at American Conservatory Theater, Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, Rosa Montoya's Bailes Flamencos, Oakland’s Dimensions Dance Theatre, and...

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