Review: James Sewell bids farewell with nostalgia and wistfulness

The Twin Cities has one less dance company after James Sewell Ballet’s final performances at St. Paul’s O’Shaughnessy. The closing celebration for the company showcased its history and beloved pieces from its repertoire for its final two performances Friday and Saturday.

JSB’s final bow, following the pause of Minnesota Dance Theatre’s performance company last spring and the shuttering of the still-dark Cowles Center in Minneapolis last year, continues a worrying trend in Twin Cities dancescape, but it’s not all bleak. As the 35-year-old JSB bid adieu, a busy month for dance demonstrated the community still holds promise for a vibrant future. Theaters and gallery spaces have been bursting with performances, exhibiting talents of local artists and visiting dancers.

Among the bright spots were luminous performances by the brand new Elayna Waxse Movement Project at the Southern Theater, a site-specific gallery performance at Mirror Lab by April Sellers Dance Collective and a scintillating engagement by Shamel Pitts’ group Tribe at the Northrop in co-presentation with the Walker Art Center.

In recent years, artistic director James Sewell has infrequently performed with his company except a cameo here and there. The “35th Anniversary Retrospective & Farewell” reversed that trend. Sewell performed in six works, including two solos. Among them was “Prestidigitations: Rings” a circus piece that highlighted the dancer’s sleight of hand with a series of trick rings, choreographed in 1991. He also performed “Body Puzzle,” (2011) that featured a style of movement he developed called Coordi, focusing on different parts of the body coordinating at different rhythms.

Sewell spoke a number of times throughout the performance, thanking the many people who were a part of JSB’s success.

“A violinist might have to spend a half million dollars to buy their violin that they have for their career, for their lifetime,” he said. “For me as a choreographer, my instrument is a ballet company. It’s a group of dancers that I work with everyday, and I have to buy my instrument every year, and I don’t do it alone.”

He also thanked the audience saying, “ultimately, it’s about all of you out there, giving us reason to be here.”

JSB co-founder Sally Rousse, who left in 2014, also gave a presentation, sharing some of the company’s scrappy beginnings. “We were a pickup company for our first three years in New York, pulling dancers who were on break from other big companies,” Rousse said. “We needed and got a lot of things for free.”

They also got free advice: “Don’t start a company,” which they thankfully ignored.

Among the highlights of the evening were “Chopin Tribute: Arm Jive,” (2008) a lovely group piece of fanning limbs where six dancers moved like one blossoming flower and “Tryst” (1990), a sensuous work highlighting Sewell’s knack for creating intriguing geometrical shapes with bodies, performed by Jarod Boltjes and Emily Trapnell.

The finale also featured choreography by Michael Walters, an artist JSB has featured in recent years. Both “Triptych” (2022) and “Time Lapse” (2023) illustrated Walters’ keen talent. They also served as a reminder that JSB’s closing not only brought an end to regular performances of Sewell’s work, but of the many artists who the company supported and championed. Sewell noted over the years, the company presented about 100 of his own works and 100 works by other choreographers.

As one dance company had a send-off, another introduced itself to the scene. Elayna Waxse Movement Project held its debut performance at the Southern Friday. Waxse has been choreographing for a number of companies in recent years, including Threads Dance Project and MDT, where she served as executive director.

Waxse’s “Creatures of Loss” took its title from a quote by musician Nick Cave, who had spoken to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation about living with the tremendous grief of losing two of his sons. “There is the initial cataclysmic event that we eventually absorb or rearrange ourselves so that we become creatures of loss as we get older,” he said.

For “Loss,” Waxse gathered a terrific group of dancers for the performance, with each one taking central focus in different sections. Colin Edwards began the piece trepidatiously engaging with the abyss, then moving as if in water. Edwards was also part of a devastating trio section with Sarah McCullough and Laura Osterhaus Rosenstone, as the three entangled themselves in an embrace.

Vocalist Gabriel Rodreick’s brutal lyrics of love and trauma accompanied the movement. Performing with Joe Strachan who weaved recorded music and music from two keyboards, Rodreick’s resonant voice added a haunting quality to the work.

Grief also took focus in a work by April Sellers Dance Collective called “Echo...We Are Imperfect Mortal Beings,” performed at Mirror Lab, a storefront gallery in Minneapolis. The small group of dancers used a mix of expressive and deliberate choreography and text amid the visual world for a dance that moved into the realm of performance art.

Audience members gathered at a set that featured an installation designed by visual artist Jess Kiel-Wornson — including a centerpiece of unidentified liquids that they could drink as they arrived. The set also had scrap pieces of paper attached to one wall with the prompt, “I remember” and pencils for the crowd to write its own memories.

Slightly stained fabric dangled around the room, and glittery slime, credited to Alison Hiltner, dripped from little containers. The slime became a central motif, stretching and encircling the dancers and acting as a punching bag for extreme emotions.

Alys Ayumi Ogura channeled a deeply embodied feeling in her opening solo. Recently honored as a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, her whole body and all her synapses engaged as she splayed against the wall and collapsed, spurred on by the deep-toned voice of Kashimana Ahua. The singer performed original numbers and a few covers, while composer Greg Schutte provided a luscious electronic score.

“Echo” runs through Wednesday in sold-out performances.

Besides local choreographers, March also brought the talents of Shamel Pitts’ group named Tribe in year two of a three-year engagement with the Northrop and the Walker Art Center. “Touch of Red” was at Northrop auditorium March 6-8.

For that show, the audience was ushered into their seats onstage as Pitts and fellow dancer Tushrik Fredericks bounced their knees and swished their hips under red lights designed by Rus Snelling to a pulsing musical score by Sivan Jacobovitz.

Framed inside a boxing ring set designed by Din Lee, the dancers embarked on a journey of intimate connection.

Pitts’ choreography borrowed gestures from the boxing ring in a way that transformed them through tempo and breath. The work also incorporated elements of lindy hop as Pitts disrupted notions of violence with an overlaying tenderness.

A captivating mover, watching Pitts dance with Fredericks offered a thrilling journey of physical agility.