Exhilarated by David Zambranos Soul Project posted by Wendy Perron on Sunday, Jan 24, 2010 Dance Magazine http://www.dancemagazine.

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His performers were all so intense that at times they were hypnotic. Their solos , danced to soul music, were each unpredictable: hell-bent or convulsive, with s udden stops or loosenings. And each of the six dancers, including David (pronoun ced da-VEED) Zambrano, are unforgettable individuals. We the audience milled around, wondering who would dance next, and where on the floor of St. Marks Church they would be. The dancers seemed to wonder too. The re ason for the wondering, I later found out, was that a computer shuffles the mix each time so the six performers dont know when their song will be up next. The first solo, danced by Edivaldo Ernesto, looked like he was locked in place a nd then he would free himself with a gesture or a shout. He was entrancing to wa tch, wearing a white shirt that extending into lace gloves and collar. The song was Be Careful, Its My Heath by Bola de Nieve, and you really felt Ernestos heart. The second solo was by Nina Fajdiga, a graduate of the School for New Dance Deve lopment in Amsterdam. She vibratedfrom her pelvis up through her arms and hands so joyously yet grittily that it seemed she was channeling Janis Joplin. With a slew of small pompoms on her upper chest and a swaying grass skirt, she wore her ecstasy well. Peter Jasko (from Slovakia) moved in ways that amazed, not for their virtuosity but for the willpower. His concentration gave him the power to hurl and scatter himself. You could almost see him think, Im gonna fly now, and his body would prope l forward like a child who refuses to think something is impossible. He wore a b lue trapeze bodysuit overlaid with an army vest with clumps of sequins sewed on, and he occasionally batted his glitter-encrusted eyelashes. By the way, all the costumes, designed by Mat Voorter, had were gloriously eccen tric with a hint of circus. Like the dances, the more you looked at them, the mo re you saw. When it was Zambranos turn, he became the magical pied piper and earth father tha t he is. Part showman, part sensitive actor as if from the 19th century, he has a kindly face and handlebar mustache. He could have been the wizard of Oz, but h e was more successful in transporting us to a wonderful place. He ended the whol e show by jumping in place with an eternal energy. One of the pleasures of this event was how presentational each dancer was. (The other two, Milan Herich, from Slovakia, and Horacio Macuacua, from Mozambique, w ere also terrific.) Yes they were inward and idiosyncratic, but they never lost the generosity of allowing us to see themfrom all angles. Another pleasure was th e international makeup of the cast. It was no surprise to learn that they have w orked with Zambrano for 6 to 10 years. It takes time to instill a particular, de manding vision of performing. The program notes said that Zambrano was aiming to touch people as deeply as sou l singers touched him. I would say he succeeded wildly. He also succeeded in pre senting improvisation with enough structure to be, well, a masterpiece. Kudos to the "Platform 2010: I get lost" project at Danspace, this portion of which was curated by Ralph Lemon.

Horacio Macuacua in Soul Project, photo by Anja Hitzenberger, Courtesy Danspace