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Show RDT review Good news and some bad U., Qrn The period costumes by Ron Hodge and the set designed by M. Kay Barrell were striking and a welcome change from the overused leotards and tights. After all, no matter how many ways they are cut up, or how many different designs are applied ap-plied to them, they are still leotards and tights. Other works offered were: "Opera," by Kay Clark, a somewhat comic piece, the dancers making their own music with photo sensitive receivers activated by changes in light intensity; and a very funny work, "Five Dances," by Joan Moon. RDT will be performing this same concert Friday and Saturday at 8:30 p.m. in Kingsbury Hall. By KIM FOLTZ Chronicle Staff Repertory Dance Theatre opened their winter concert series last Friday and the audience loved them. I didn't, not at first. The dancers were wobbly and unpolished, their act was not together. The first two dances, Bill Evan's "For Betty" and Tin Wengerd's "Sonatas and Interludes," In-terludes," were riddled with flaws in choreography and performance. per-formance. The dances were incomplete, the dancers didn't seem to be saying very much on a philosophical or aesthetic level. The reason was not obvious at first. Then, it struck me RDT was performing RDT. There were no He lords over the other dancers, the members of his family with stilted movements and a cold manner. Lynn Wimmer is fiery, as the unattended and unloved second wife. She is scorned by her husband, by the son and other wives, yet she never stops competing for their affections. Miss Wimmer's performance was expressive and dramatic. In the few minutes she was on stage she created a total, motivated character. Kay Clark is the seductive third wife, wooing the son, Gregg Lizenbery. The action centers around these two. Their intimacy incures the rath of the father and fircf wifp Thev are works by outside masters no Viola Farber or Jose Limon to spark the dancers no Richard Kuch to grab at their souls and tear at the collective heart. The spark was gone. Or so it would have seemed, until "The Legacy," choreographed by Mr. Evans. It was a simple dance, a simple story of a man, his son and three wives, that was overpowering over-powering in its subtle intracacies. Inspired by photographs of early Utah families, the work was a piece of Americana, of early Utah life, complete in every respect. Mr. Evans is the pious husband, the patriarch of a Mormon family. berrated, but ultimately taken back into the fold. They are, unlike the second wife, loved. The first wife, the only member of the family able to reason with the father, the only member with a hand in his own fate, is Linda Smith. Her performance as always, was flawless. She is an actress who dances she is a dancer who can and does act. She possesses a fine sense of drama, incorporating it with her movement to make a total character. Mr. Evans has choreographed a fine new dance. |