New dance troupe debuts with original work

Artistic director Becky Kendall's "In-Lighten" opened the program with a startling metaphor for this momentum/moment dichotomy: light. Flashlights trapped the seven dancers, puddled around them or pushed them around the darkened stage. Dappled light slowly opened the stage and freed the dancers to move in all directions and with all sorts of energy. Later, golden light bathed the dancers' arms and legs as they tried to shake it off or send it scattering into the darkness.

Stephanie Griffin's solo for Kendall, "Brake Thru," and Irenerose Castillo and Katherine Cunningham's self-choreographed duet "Engineering Momentum" had a sense of stop-and-start that etched kinetic moments in time throughout the dances. Kendall's actions curved back on one another, taking her in sudden directional and emotional changes that were by turns awkward, gentle, lovely and distracting.

Castillo and Cunningham were caught by invisible forces that propelled movements out of their twitching bodies. This wasn't scientifically calculated movement, as one would assume from the title, but bursts of action that caught both the performers and the audience off-guard.

Alana Whelan's "maintaining momentum?" slipped in a bit of fun as four dancers used rubber tires to make "spotlights" for their disco-esque show-boating. Shifting music echoed a shift in mood and the tires became hobbles restricting the performers' actions.

Daly's solo "even rock stars..." softened the edges of movements to give the piece a contemplative aura. Her arms and legs became the physical instruments of her thoughts, carrying her forward, backward and in circles. At one point the white dress she put on changed the feel of the dance completely with its whispery sounds and sensually-constrained movements.

Momentum Dance Collective's concert ended light-heartedly with Daly's "Stage Names." "Life's A Beach" seemed to be the message here as the seven dancers chased, flirted and held each other in laughing female companionship. What a delightful way to pay homage to those wonderful moments that carry us forward and together in the momentum that is our lives.