Houston Press Review of Moments in a Decade

Houston Press Review – June 26, 2008
Moments in a Decade It's been ten years since Sonia Noriega and Sophia L. Torres put together Psophonia Dance Company in hopes of making contemporary dance accessible to folks who don't think of themselves as, ahem, Modern Dance People. The success of their mission floated across the stage at Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex last weekend in Moments in a Decade, a program stitched together from pieces Noriega and Torres have created for the company over the years. The variety of dance was striking. Skinned, choreographed by Noriega, featured music by Cole Porter and fluid, loose-limbed, muscular moves from charming dancing clown Timothy Johnson. A more serious and poetic piece was Lightness & Darkness, choreographed by Torres, about the attraction of each to its opposite. This thoughtful, still dance emerged out of an enormous black-and-white circle of cloth that swept across the stage. With music by Jesse Manno, it felt as much like a prayer as a dance. In between these two extremes were fun pieces like Excerpt from Mazagines & Beat Selts, in which the dancers romped across the stage with mattresses, jumping on them like children, and the ironic How Sweet It Is! featuring music by Francis Scott Key. Taken as a whole, the program revealed a dance company that anyone could adore. — Lee Williams