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PH%u2122fIXPerformance Group Picks Up A Few More Fans AtB Y P A M E L A G A YEHie David Gordon Pick-Up Companypresented an evening of performances atThe Brooklyn Academy of Music%u2019s NextWave Festival November 22, offering workswhich triumphed in their changing interplayof sound, color, and sheer shape of dance.performance. A post-modernist, Gordonformed the Pick-Up Company in the late1970%u2019s and, with a repertory consisting ofcrafted grouping and pacing and theevocative artistry of lead dancer Valda Setterfield, has molded a casual stage ambiance and created a dance theater of manydimensions.In %u201cTransparent Means for TravelingLight,%u201d Gordon arranges his sound interplay using three works by John Cage:%u201cCredo in Us;%u201d %u201cRozart Mix;%u201d and %u201cCollection of Rocks #2,%u201d a new work commissioned for the Pick-Up Company. More integrally in this work, his craftsmanship extends to the stage space itself. A partition ofa stage floor rises slowly showing a dancerstanding amid ten television sets. As itlevels with the stage, a single dancer slowlysteps upstage, his back to the audience, aswings are raised and lowered to createshifting dimensions of space. As the dancermoves away, a backdrop of strong yellowlight and a descending vertical pole atcenterstage again shift the space and createa mood of suspense. Three dancers enter,dressed casually in pink, and weave complicated, yet playful, patterns.Gordon%u2019s choreography is weightless andhis dancers seem to frolic, the shapes theycreate juxtaposed against constantly shifting stage wings and framing beams of colored light. Creating yet another image,horizontal beams of black cloth are drawnfrom the wings, a pattern of upper torsos ofdancers appearing behind their veil.Throughout the work, visions abound ofdancers dangling from iron beams, formingintricate acrobatic symbols or tumbling inpatterns of rich, varied form. Finally, curtains converge from above and from thewings, centering and making a last encounter with the dance. Gordon slowly liftsSetterfield in a classical pose as the danceends.In %u201cMy Folks,%u201d Gordon tells a more personal story of fathers and mothers and therelationships of childhood. His archetypesare noble and depict in symbols scenes ofhis childhood on New York%u2019s Lower EastSide. Opening with two figures in blackframed against a dark, dimly-lit redbackdrop, the first tableau reveals his ability to control dance space with deliberatestrides suggesting dominance. In followingtableaux, where groups of dancers createimages symbolic of play to the backdrop ofklezmer music, lights change movementpatterns and frame carefully choreographed yet effortlessly executed dances.Most skillful in this work is Gordon%u2019s useof long strips of multicolored fabric usedNext Wave Festboth as costume and setting from whichdancers both shield and reveal themselves.As they enter the stage behind a fabric striprevealing only their heads, or pairthemselves with gold and black-stripedpieces and form multiple images, fabricspair with performers to create continuouslyevolving and bizarre stage shapes. WhatGordon sees in shape and color is thusskillfully used to enhance physical and emotional metaphor.In %u201cSeasons,%u201d premiered this season, adialogue begun by Setterfield frames thedance %u2014 a collage of four sections evokingthe seasons. %u201cSummer is my undoing,%u201d Setterfield begins, and culminates her poemwith the phrase, spoken nobly and defiantly,%u201cI ignore winter.%u201d From this point the workcontinues mirthfully as dancers shed andadd to their costumes, responding to changing images of seasons. Sound suggests imI age as lyrics of songs, %u201cSummer in theContinued on Page 24THE ADVENT OF MODERNISMPOST-IMPRESSIONISM AND NORTH AMERICAN ART, 1900-1918Stuart Davis, Portrait of a Man (Eugene O%u2019Neill?), 1914, oil on canvas. The Regis Collection, MinneapolisTH E BROOKLYN MUSEUM200 Eastern Parkway %u2022 Nov. 2 6 -Jan. 19,1987 Monday, Wednesday-Friday, 10am-5pm Saturday, lla m -6 p m %u2022 Sunday, lpm -6pm For information: 718-638-5000%u00a9Copyright iBM Cflfpxaoar 886The exhibition, organizer! by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, uas funtlerl by a grunt from the 1RM CorporationIts shotting at The Brooklyn Museum has been made possible, in part, by a grunt from the New York Slate Council on the ArtsThe New Theatre of BrooklynA rtistic Director D eborah J. P op epresentsMurray H orw itz InAN EVENING OFSHOLOM ALEICHEMStories by The Great Yiddish WriterLimited Engagement %u2022 Reserve NowDecember 4-14,1986Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8pmThursdays at Ham %u2022 Sundays at 3pmTickets S8 (Saturday Evening $10) or TDF +Reservations: (718) 230-3366465 Dean St. (at Flatbush Avenue)Ample Street ParkingNOW OPEN SUNDAYSSolder.An A m erican D ining TraditionSince 1879.M inutes from M anhattan in th eheart o f h istoric B rooklyn.372 Fulton M all near Borough HallFor reservations call: 875-5181M ajor cred it cards a ccep ted38T R A D IT IO N A LTH A N K SG IV IN G DAY D IN N E RRoast Vermont Turkey (with All The Trimmings) Prime Rib of Beef Au Jus Fresh Filet o f Norwegian Sole (includes: soup, dessert & beverage)$13.95 per personFor Reservations call788-3245140 7th Ave. Brooklyn N Y 11215November 27, 1986, THE PHOENIX, Page 23