Life in the Four Seasons Review – Dancers of all ages have a spring in their step | Dance

IIt was a wonderful idea: a dance through the four seasons of life, with performers ranging from spring to winter, in a reimagining of Vivaldi’s four seasons. salary. It’s amazing to see older dancers who can bring all forms of their experience to the stage. But the thing with so many actors, who all specialize in different styles, is that the dance ends up somewhere in the middle: everyone can do it but it doesn’t suit anyone’s strengths. The movement falls into territory moderately influenced by street dance, and is bound by a basic 4/4 feel. When you catch a glimpse of a dancer’s signature — say, the great Michael Naylor breaking down in the club scene — you think, “Oh, that’s what we’ve been missing.”

The choreography is by American Alexandra Sarmiento, who works mainly in musicals and as an action director in theatre, along with director Tinuki Craig. The setting is a trio of dancers for each season, always dressed in blue, pink and orange, who we realize represent a person’s head, heart and gut, although this is not initially obvious. The set has boxes stamped “HEAD”, “HEART” and “GUT”, but (to me, anyway) it wasn’t clear because that didn’t seem related to dancing.