Fusion Fest

For five years Cleveland has celebrated new works and combined art forms with Fusion Fest. This afternoon we took in two works at the Cleveland Playhouse that featured four actors from the Playhouse, five members of GroundWorks, one of our favorite local dance companies, and seven members of the Cleveland Orchestra.

The first piece, Catch and Release, was the more successful of the two for me. The well-trained and evocative GroundWorks dancers handled the difficult choreography of David Shimotakahara with energy and grace. Having live music played by the Orchestra members enhanced to the effectiveness of the piece.

The second piece, A Soldier’s Tale, had received excellent reviews. It did not live up to them as far as my Sweetie and I were concerned. Stravinsky’s music was sublime, the dancing riveting but the play fell flat. Maybe it was simply that it did not live up to the hype.

Both pieces projected images on the dance floor as well as above and behind the orchestra. Some of these enhanced the action. At the end they showed a photo of the Eddie Slovik, who was the first soldier to be executed for desertion since the Civil War. But then they showed home movies of a middle class family celebrating Christmas. If this was supposed to represent his family, it failed since Eddie’s home life was portrayed as very different from that.

I wonder what next year’s festival will bring.