A Dance Called Baltimore Review

Review submitted by Melissa Brady

A Dance Called Baltimore was performed August 13th and 14th as a part of Second Saturdays in the Arts and Entertainment district. The Echo Gallery in the North Avenue Market greeted me and the friends I had brought along with open doors, kids playing catch, and watermelon -- the first of several treats on a summer’s day, cool as it was. The program explained a little of the evolution of the unique project: first as a song, then a mural, and now a dance. The story of this alliance of arts warms my heart almost as much as watching the young, talented Peabody students actually dance: Baltimore, a song written by musicians Saleem Higgins and Caleb Stine, inspired a mural painted by MICA undergrad students, which was then transformed by further musical (Mika Sellens), video (Christina Ralls), and movement composition (Meghan Flanigan) into a beautiful performance.  The song and the mural were both incorporated into the dance, which had both video and live components. It was clear to me that the extensive collaboration of the many people who worked on this project paid off, because they created a very tangible, small piece of beauty in Baltimore.
The sound and video were nicely fit together, as far as I could tell, although I would have liked to hear the original song (that is something I will probably look into for myself). However, my experience is more relevant in the dance world, so I will just say a few words about the live dance component of the presentation. It was refreshing.  It was nice to see movements clearly drawn from the experience of these children become a piece of art. I saw basketball, swimming, running, playing… and all of it was dancing. I thought it was very appropriate to see the content of the dance reflect the youth of the performers. That is not to say that the dancers performed like children. The performance quality and the control demonstrated by these young dancers, ranging from middle school to early high school age, were actually impressive, and lovely to see. I also appreciated the progression of the dance – its themes reappearing in different places -- and the way the mural -- composed of four sections, each set on castors in order to be moveable -- was used for more than a backdrop. The mural was also a playscape, and a collection of memories. “We call her Baltimore, city of dreams,” the voices of children repeated in the video. This was not all of Baltimore, but it was a youthful vision of what beauty can be found here.