I’ll admit that I had little awareness of Gina Gibney’s dance legacy, and I had never seen Gibney Company in performance, before the troupe’s weeklong engagement at the Henry J. Leir Stage at Jacob’s Pillow this week. I’m not alone in that; the company was only established in 2020, arising from what used to be Gibney Dance Company — which had performed three times on the Leir stage. Founder Gina Gibney received two million dollars from the Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund, and used it to create studio and performance spaces for dancers in lower Manhattan along with a community center offering dance classes and workshops. She also doubled the size of her company and changed the model from primarily performing her own choreography to including the work of top-notch choreographers in the repertoire.
What initially drew me to this performance was that the program included two pieces by Twyla Tharp from the 1970s. And I’m happy to say that Gibney’s troupe of superb, young, charismatic dancers executed Tharp’s choreography with élan, presenting both works with the precision and playfulness Tharp is known for.
First up was Bach Duet, from 1974, performed by Eleni Loving and Jake Tribus to J.S. Bach’s 78th Cantata.The two charismatic dancers captured Tharp’s exacting combination of squiggliness and sturdiness in this brief duet, with its defining movement of Tribus miming spitting on the stage and rubbing his foot in it. There’s no traditional partnering, but the dancers make distinct moments of contact, hand to shoulder, foot to leg, even seeming to bump into each other. It’s a pleasure to watch them as they pause in interesting shapes then move on, moving away from each other and back together, sometimes seeming to be annoyed at each other for getting in the way.
Interestingly, The Fugue, from 1970, has a similar defining movement — a dancer slaps his or her thigh, or butt, as if counting off time to start a new segment. We also hear the dancers’ intentional footfalls as accompanying rhythm, like the old soft show, which must help three dancers stay together in this piece of quicksilver choreography. As noted in the program notes, The Fugue is modeled on J.S. Bach’s The Musical Offering and consists of 20 variations on a 20-count theme, though it is performed without music. But we don’t hear all the footfalls, only those specified in the dance, which provides a remarkable demonstration of the dancers’ control, as some of the moves are lofty jumps that result in silent landings.
Dancers Graham Feeny, Jie-Hung Connie Shiau, and Loving fold quickly in and out of unison and canons of intricate movement and timing, making rapid shifts in demeanor from expansive and graceful to pedestrian and serious, and coming into stillnesses. There’s an interesting position that recurs in all orientations and permutations: the dancers stand, weight in one leg bent out to the side, the other leg extended out flat footed to the other side, like an asymmetric half second position, half demi plié, with hands either loose at the side or folded in front of the chest. Another recurring pose has the dancer on one leg, the other leg bent high so that the foot nestles next to the standing leg’s knee, body upright, hand reaching to the sky. One could attempt to work out the complex patterning in The Fugue, but it’s best to let these fine dancers do the heavy lifting and just enjoy how effortless they make it look.
The program closed with Bliss, a piece for the entire ensemble (eight of Gibney’s artistic associates, two guest artists, and two apprentices) choreographed by Johan Inger to Keith Jarrett’s classic piano improvisation, The Koln Concert, Part 1. This piece has a perfect summer vibe, with its pastel-hued costumes (sundresses for the women, short-sleeved button-down shirts on the men) and movement that seems loft the dancers on a breeze.
Inger makes use of diagonals across the stage, with various groupings of dancers executing joyous, sweeping movements. We see a daring pas de deux in which a woman repeatedly pushes herself to the very edge of balance and the man catches her before she falls. There’s an intriguing section when four dancers form a circle, each holding one hand into the center, then move in the round, like a horizontal wheel. Two of the dancers move into the center, partnering in a pas de deux as the others continue to walk in a circle around them, before the four reform their original wheel-like configuration and circular motion.
Toward the end, one dancer remains in the left corner upstage, loosely jogging in place, as the other dancers gather for ensemble work center stage. He slows his pace, then subtly joins the ensemble as other dancers come onstage from the sidelines, taking up the jogging before joining in the unison segment. It’s engaging to watch this pattern unfold again and again until all 12 dancers are moving together onstage. Then gradually, the dancers sweep themselves off to the side, and the original jogger is left jogging in place center stage until he sheepishly notices he’s alone.
In a happy coincidence, as Bliss unfolded, the clouds that had threatened rain all day dissipated, and the sun shone brightly through the trees surrounding the outdoor stage. Inger and Gibney could not have engineered a better end to such a pleasing dance.
Gibney Company performs on the Henry J. Leir Stage at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, Massachusetts, through August 11
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