Dancer, Muse and James Bond Villain moves to N.Y.

Down thru the decades, all the James Bond women have been gorgeous, talented, a muse in one form or another, but always very deadly! The one common denominator with them all - they leave us.

And so with Copious Dance Theater's home season (Z-Space - May 13, 14 & 15, 2011) we will lose our own personal James Bond girl, Jennifer Mellor, as she moves to New York. But our James Bond girl is different than the rest. She is real. She is intelligent - one of the top in her graduating class at Stanford and a dancer who knows how to choreograph to women's femininity and strength. Like all good muses, Ms Mellor inspires and can make us think of things in ways we have not done so before.

It is by no coincidence, Jennifer Mellor danced her two newer pieces at The Garage last week (May 2011) and one of them is about muses, titled, "Les Muses." A dance about muses and how they have influenced literature, science and the arts all down thru history. (Her other dance "Duplexity," a solo piece about communication of messages and it unfolds in complete silence.)

In Les Muses, two female dancers weave their duet in cream color dresses - colors of earth and skin - that are quite fragile and feminine. Although made of linen, they're slip like in appearance, so any allure of hidden femininity is brought out in full view. At times the two muses mimic one another's movements while dancing about filling the air with gestures of reading, writing and adoration of being alive - pursuing the beautiful things in life.

The third dancer is male and he sits a good portion of the dance, watching his two muses and being inspired. And why not two muses? Balanchine had at least a half dozen throughout his life time.

One of my favorite parts of this dance has Ms Mellor angling her body and arms into what feels like a bowl and she dipping her right hand in and out of it. Yet somehow it feels as if she's playing a silent, elegant musical instrument. She performs it twice while sashaing across the front of the stage. Her creative process on this gesture alone is quite fascinating. She states:

"The gesture is one actually inspired by a woman my husband, Rick, saw performing/playing a water bowl in the middle of the dome at the S.F. Palace of Fine Arts many years ago. Even though it was only described to me the image has stuck with me..."

That's our local choreographer for you - creating a visual art piece from an incident years ago that she only heard about and did not see. Oh, the stuff muses are made of.

Another gesture has our muse riding on the back of the male dancer as he crawls along the stage on all fours. As he moves, she reads. She turns the pages so gracefully, that her hand brushes against her shoulder before the turning of each page. With him carrying her in such a strange, tough manner, it's a reminder, that he must work hard and suffer for the sake of having a muse.

I seem to learn alot with each turning of those pages by Ms Mellor. And with the help of our local dancers, choreographers, muses and especially our James Bond girl, I learned last week, that with their presence on our small performing art stages at places like The Garage and CounterPULSE, those same stages are as big as any of our largest stages in San Francisco and the Bay Area!!

Ms Mellor
allowing me to see things I haven't seen
allowing me to think things I haven't dreamed...


Postscript:

And the James Bond Girl? Well, the photo below of Jennifer Mellor is from her dance Duplexity. A dance where athleticism, sharp angles and silence rule. Seeing this photo, one cannot help but think of a beautiful James Bond adversary. A gorgeous, but deadly black belt expert, executing her moves. And the best of the best of muses have a sense of humor - our Ms Mellor is taking hers to N.Y.



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