Reviews:

Second Wind Dance Company
"Overall, Second Wind Dance Company presented a top notch evening of modern dance”
- Dancer Magazine

 

“Bev Duane is a gifted performer and choreographer with a unique and enticing vision of dance. Her work fuses kinetic energy with dramatic tension to produce dances charged with emotional intensity. As an interpreter, Ms. Duane is in command of a quicksilver technique that is at once both fluid and grounded. Her dances stem from imaginative places and meld a soundness of structure with a deeply emotional vision of what the human body in motion is able to communicate. Committed, energetic and exceedingly passionate, Bev Duane is a consummate performer and choreographer who creates work of the utmost integrity.”  

- Julia Sasso, Assistant Artistic Director of Dancemakers (Toronto, Canada), March 6, 1997

 

“In a riveting evening of modern dance presented by the Chesapeake-based Second Wind Dance Company, the expressivity of the human form and the indomitability of the human spirit were explored, with provocative results. “Flesh-and-bone bodies became gelatinous jellyfish undulating lugubriously amid undersea currents in choreographer Stacy Elise Sagely’s whimsically beautiful ‘Let’s Make Like Jellies And Jam,’ commissioned by the Virginia Marine Science Museum for the opening of its new jellyfish exhibit and set to the poetry of Robert Arthur. “The haunting ‘Slave Dreams,’ choreographed by company director Beverly Cordova Duane, and the lyrical ‘Coming Up For Air,’ choreographed by Melody Ruffin Ward, showcased the elegant grace and earthy stability of the movement of twins Nikia and Tamika Burks. The sisters’ symbiotic and steadfast relationship revealed in both works was especially poignant. “Long-legged and loose-limbed with an extraordinary extension, Philip Deal performed the bluesy, woozy ‘Malted Milk’ ­ choreographed by Mia Michaels, for which he won the silver medal at the 1998 Paris International Dance Competition ­ with cocky assuredness. His own ‘Free’ was equally showy and attitude-packed, climaxing with a breathtaking string of daredevil turns..”
 

- Sue VanHecke, The Virginian Pilot, Dec. 5, 1999
 

“Inspirational ‘Offerings’ was poignant and jubilant motion to excerpts from Handel’s Messiah.” "Todd Rosenlieb and Kathryn Finney rendezvous in the a savvy, humorous and sexy duet 'Thrift Store Tango’ described by the Virginian Pilot as a ‘witty choreography’ and ‘an amusing yet beautiful skewering of the romantic form.’ Stacy Sagely’s Winds, an airborne, interactive piece symbolizing freedoms afforded to women in America, “was intriguing in its interactive evolution, the three women, buffeted by unseen winds, unfurling to support each other in questing lifts, sculptural embraces, and lyrical tumbles to the floor.”

- Sue VanHecke, The Virginian Pilot, Oct. 27, 1997

“Their dancing (in Leaves, Leaves, Leaves... A Tribute to Vincent Van Gogh) is graceful, technically admirable and emotionally evocative.”
- Montague Gammon, Virginian Pilot, May 1998
“Duane’s Celtic Voices was a poignant look at life and death in a hard place. No part of this excellent piece should be lost to viewers. Duane’s heart rending Burnt Center, to Sharon Olds’ poetry about domestic abuse, was another powerful work.”

-Judith Hatcher, Dancer Magazine, March 1997

“I attended a performance of the recently-formed Second Wind Dance Company on Sept. 30 at Regent University in Virginia Beach, and found the choreography and the dancing to be exciting and artistically challenging. Duane’s own talent as a choreographer was very evident in the five or so new pieces on the program. Her style is modern, and the works communicate the mysteries of the human experience with the sort of complexity and clarity you might find in a well-made poem or novel.”

-Teresa Annas, arts writer for The Virginian Pilot, Fall of 1994

Duane’s choreography of Narnia was “unforgettable,” and her Daddy Dear, “with its assault on fine distinctions, is excellent and instructive.”

- Robert Arthur, Port Folio Magazine, Dec. 1995

“Choreographer Beverly Cordova Duane is responsible for much of the vivacity of this show. She requires that her dancers really dance, and she uses variations of rhythms and tempo, and movement in three dimensions with a facility rarely seen on local stages.”

- The Beacon, reviewing Godspell, chosen as Best Play of 1992 in Hampton Roads by Port Folio
 

Duane’s choreography was “a surreal trip through agony and support.”

- The Richmond Times, 1992

“Duane’s dance seems to translate music into movement. The results were lyrical, fun, and entertaining.”

- The Virginia Gazette, Fall 1991

Between 1987 and 1991, Beverly Cordova Duane’s choreography and dance performances received the following reviews in The Buffalo News: “Beverly Duane gave a searing performance of Sleepless Night, yet she phrased it quite differently from last season. One moment taut, the other crumpled and hopeless, the dancer reels fitfully across the stage. She boils with emotion, yet she seemed less angry than wounded and confused. It is the mark of a true artist that the second interpretation works as convincingly as the first.”

Her Desert Winds was described as “a lovely dance piece whose smooth physical energy resolves in movement that is gentle, meditative, even ceremonial in its final stance of peace and pause.”

“As choreographer and performer, Ms. Duane goes for the throat, with vivid and passionate characterizations in her movements that convey more meaning per motion than design.”

“The dramatic undercurrent of tension [in her dance] provides for refreshing dramatic dialogue in movement.”

Her “holistic approach [to] integrating other media” with her work “was the most exciting development on the local dance scene.”

Her dance performances have been called “wrenching, captivating,” and her work was said to leave “a memorable impact through its bold, unembellished steps danced most expressively.”

“Complex issues were treated with clear, uncluttered movements that relied on theatrical amplification. Stories were told in poetics, song, and choreography rich in images.”

The Buffalo News offered this description of Duane’s Requiem: “Finishing the evening was Requiem set to the music of Mozart. A large group of dancers twirl their way around the stage in perfect unison, their pace is fast and furious.”

“In a riveting evening of modern dance presented by the Chesapeake-based Second Wind Dance Company, the expressivity of the human form and the indomitability of the human spirit were explored, with provocative results. “Flesh-and-bone bodies became gelatinous jellyfish undulating lugubriously amid undersea currents in choreographer Stacy Elise Sagely’s whimsically beautiful ‘Let’s Make Like Jellies And Jam,’ the first of the program’s eight works. Commissioned by the Virginia Marine Science Museum for the opening of its new jellyfish exhibit and set to percussive music and the poetry of Robert Arthur, ‘Jellies’ also exulted in the rhythm of language, with each of the four dancers intoning a descriptive single syllable ­swoosh,” “swirl,” “squirm,” “sting” ­ to inform his or her seemingly waterborne movements.

 

“The haunting ‘Slave Dreams,’ choreographed by company director Beverly Cordova Duane to the mystical music of Yemenite singer Ofra Haza, and the lyrical ‘Coming Up For Air,’ choreographed by ODU assistant professor Melody Ruffin Ward to the Patty Larkin song of the same title, showcased the elegant grace and earthy stability of the movement of twins Nikia and Tamika Burks. The sisters’ symbiotic and steadfast relationship revealed in both works was specially poignant. “In stark contrast to most of the program’s reflective tone was a pair of brash solos danced by Philip Deal, a Virginia Beach native who’s danced with the Kirov Ballet and American Ballet Theater. “Long-legged and loose-limbed with an extraordinary extension, Deal performed the bluesy, woozy ‘Malted Milk’ ­ choreographed by Mia Michaels, for which he won the silver medal at the 1998 Paris International Dance Competition ­ with cocky assuredness. His own ‘Free’ was equally showy and attitude-packed, climaxing with a breathtaking string of daredevil turns.”

Sue VanHecke, The Virginian Pilot, (Dec. 5, 1999).
 

DANCE REVIEW

"Dancewinds: Hymn To The Chesapeake," Second Wind Dance Company, Friday night at the Chrysler Museum Theater, Norfolk.
by Sue VanHecke Correspondent

It was a voyage over the waters of the Chesapeake Bay Friday evening in Norfolk as Second Wind Dance Company presented "Dancewinds: Hymn To The Chesapeake," commissioned as part of the OpSail 2000 festivities. As has become her trademark, company director and choreographer Beverly Cordova Duane once again set movement to poetry with the program's dynamic focal piece, "Hymn To The Chesapeake," a suite danced to the verse of local author Robert P. Arthur, who frequently collaborates with the group. The work, for the most part, was effective, with the poetry serving dual purposes, providing both rhythm and a narrative flow. As a narrative device, Arthur's autobiographical musings of life on and around the bay, read to tape by local actors, propelled the troupe's movements. The dancers translated - more figuratively than literally - the author's words into a visual language, evoking the essence of swells and spray, of breezes and storms, of the freedom and loss and sense of etertinity that water can represent.
Most effective were the quartet "Ladies Of The Bay," where women bobbed, cut and ducked through unseen waves, their diaphanous skirts unfurling like sails snapping in a wind; "Dog Shark," vitriolic verse and motion danced byDuane; the melancholy trio "Graveyard Of Ships"; and "Storm Dance," another trio which transformed the malevolent energy of a thunderstorm into a gleeful reel.
Arthur's hardy poetry is strong, forceful and image-rich. One wished its delivery Friday night was not quite so swift so as to savor its sturdy construction and variegated textures. The program also featured a riveting solo from internationally award-winning dancer Philip Deal of Virginia Beach, who, with his endless legs and cocky attitude, is always a pleasure to watch. He danced the irony-laden "Inextinguishable," a quirky and frantic mix of modern and classical styles rife with pop culture references set to Vivaldi, that elicited peals of laughter from the delighted children in the audience.