: exhale dance tribe : press

Monday, February 21, 2011
Exhale Dance Tribe Shines in "Vinyl"*

BY KATHY VALIN

Last Saturday evening at The Aronoff Center, things were hoppin' during Exhale Dance Tribe's lively presentation of "Vinyl." Billed as a "contemporary twist on 50s and 60s tunes," the show consisted of nineteen short pieces, each performed to a recorded popular song.

Many were familiar, and reflected in their subject matter young love and its many permutations, and the new sense of freedom and rebellion against the status quo that seemed to embody the spirit of those times. Evocative projections by Todd Uttley accompanied each song, and the cast of eleven young women and one young man (plus one apprentice and one guest artist) in various numbers and configurations gave the sense that they all inhabited aspects of the same society.

This small ambitious company headed by two ex-Broadway dancers (Missy Lay Zimmer and Andrew Hubbard) who have settled in Cincinnati (Zimmer's hometown) has had a distinctive contemporary jazz style from the get-go. Their productions typically dazzle in short vignettes, where (and here I quote myself) "oversize emotion reigns supreme and the physicality of the young movers onstage is mesmerizing."

Using the organizing principal of an era's songs to illuminate turbulent times was a stroke of brilliance in this case. It has always been left to the audience to figure out a specific narrative in Exhale presentations.

In much of their ensemble work I've seen previously, I felt as if I were seeing the culminating moment of a Broadway show without quite knowing what specifically that show was about. It didn't make the dances any less fun to watch--there was always plenty of virtuosity, playfulness and lots of emotion on view.

But, the tunes in "Vinyl" incorporate catchy lyrics (and a variety of musical styles and subject matter) in a way that helps enormously in directing the audience's attention by contributing specificity, momentum and continuity to the onstage situations. Also, though there are moments of pain and the horror of young men going to war is invoked, "Vinyl" is ultimately upbeat, ending with Joe Cocker's inspired version of "With A Little Help From My Friends."

Other standout numbers were set to "Sea of Love," a very funny "I Put A Spell on You," "These Arms of Mine," Ray Charles' "What I'd Say," and a cover of the Beatles' "Something." Short skirts, scarves and ponytails, and lots of eye makeup were all in evidence. Occasionally, the women appeared in jazz trunks or pants and sports bras.

Zimmer and Hubbard have managed to attract a very strong group of performers. These were some very energetic and fit dancers!

"Vinyl" is mostly danced in bare feet, and lovers of modern dance technique no doubt rejoiced. I certainly did! Battements were effortlessly ear-high, yet controlled. Turns were clean, with little obvious preparation and an absence of off-balance hops. Isolations and timing were impeccable.

There were struts and grand jete jumps, formations that spooled performers off one at a time, much floor work, acrobatic somersaults and flips, and slow motion groupings, as well as joyful unison dancing. One thing never lacking was variety and inventiveness, strong suits of the choreographers.*

This was a one-night-only performance. It would be terrific if Cincinnati audiences got another chance to see this program.

*I thought it might be fun to post the first-ever review I wrote of Exhale for CityBeat after their 2007 Fringe Festival appearance, and also to keep in mind that their collaboration "Infamous Love Songs" (for Cincinnati Ballet to the music of Over the Rhine) is coming up this spring. The review and info about "Infamous" are here.

Sunday, January 2, 2011
Featured on Arts & Entertainment, Cincinnati Enquirer

BY JACKIE DEMALINE

Planet Dance owners and Artistic Director and Founders of Exhale Dance Tribe are featured on the front page as 2011 in Arts & Entertainment and WHO, WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN NEW YEAR.

Friday, October 15, 2010
New Works Preview Spotlights Exhale Choreographers

BY KATHY VALIN

Sometimes, a dance work? just grabs you. You want to rewind and see it all over again!

Friday, October 15, 2010
City Beat Onstage: Exhale Dance Tribe

BY KATHY VALIN

Whether you missed this physically mesmerizing company of 11 lithe young women in Binocular in January at the Aronoff Center or just want to exhale winter and the record breaking snows of February, take yourself to The Anderson Center Friday night for Exhale Dance Tribe's funny, sensual, explosive and sometimes serious Look Closer.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008
The times they are a-changin'

The times they are a-changin' " sings Bob Dylan on Missy Zimmer's voicemail greeting. Times are changing for Zimmer and her husband Andrew Hubbard's dual endeavors: the contemporary jazz-based Exhale Dance Tribe and their progressive dance school, Planet Dance. The school has recently moved into a new home within a grand, historic stone building on Gilbert Avenue.

The timing was fortuitous. Their former Western Hills location above a hardware store wasn't ideal geographically, and the sounds of the tenants' feet overhead wasn't music to customers' ears. An Exhale member saw the new space for lease, and Zimmer and Hubbard leapt at the opportunity to be in more urban environs.

"It feels way more artistically stimulating to be in town," Zimmer says.

Hubbard says, "I think first and foremost it feels to us like it kind of solidifies the professionalism of what we're doing, and our mission." "Which is to be more of an urban-based school," Zimmer adds. "Really that's what we've been wanting for a long time: (To offer) the kind of dance where you're encompassing hip hop, jazz and ballet -- all the classical art forms of dance, but then also really branching out, too.

Planet Dance is about really bumping up the dance education of these other forms, so they're a little more respected and not so like, 'Oh, that thing.' " Their new dance digs complement their more downtown desires: wide-open space, soaring ceilings and versatile alcoves. The whitewashed exposed brick walls and industrial-strength bolts and beams above also give the place a New York City loft feel. Zimmer and Hubbard should know: They spent a good bit of their careers there dancing on Broadway in Cats, among other major productions. The pair is just back from a long weekend on Long Island, where they spent 12-plus-hour days judging a national high school-age dance competition, but they don't look worse for wear. According to the couple, enduring some of the numbers can be torturous, but there's some real talent on display, too. Their competition judging work has been extensive and frequent -- sometimes every weekend for months on end -- but it provides steady bread-and-butter income.

Zimmer and Hubbard discuss what a risk the move is, what with the steep costs of installing a sprung wood floor covered with eye-popping green marley (a type of thin, durable rubber floor covering). It's clearly a labor of love -- in addition to some generous donations, they're running up their home equity line of credit. But they show no signs of doubt that after eight years in business -- it's the right move at the right time.

"It is a giant leap," Hubbard says. "It's built on the faith that what we offer here can sustain itself and can grow and evolve and change.

"I have faith that there is a community in Cincinnati, in this Tristate, that can sustain what we're trying to do. It's so much more than just another dance studio."

With the school and the company dovetailing, young dancers can gain pre-professional company experience while training across styles. Zimmer and Hubbard are committed to bringing in world-class instructors through their professional dance connections, in addition to expanding class offerings for children.

As if that's not enough to keep them busy, they have a performance on the heels of their grand opening. Their iPod-inspired Shuffle will offer a sampler of mostly new works alongside a few restaged selections. Zimmer and Hubbard's sparkling fresh, eclectic choreography delights the senses and challenges conformity. Like a Shuffle, they like to mix it up and stay up with the times.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Best of Cincinnati

Best of Cincinnati for January 1, 2008 City Beat Magazine

There's much to like in Exhale Dance Tribe's new show produced by Know Theatre, aren't we all but a dance of particles?: a pair of gifted choreographers in founding artistic directors Missy Lay Zimmer and Andrew Hubbard; a talented group of energetic young dancers who give their all; Derek Snow's onstage poetic musings woven around the 12 pieces; diverse, richly textured, hip music. Two numbers were rhythmically enhanced by Nigerian drummer O. Yemi's live djembe playing onstage.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008
artistic muscle

Exhale dance troupe launches debut series

The Exhale Dance Tribe, which launched its first concert series Friday night at the Know Theatre, is truly a fresh breath of artistic air on the Cincinnati dance scene.

The company, founded three years ago by artistic co-directors and choreographers Missy Lay Zimmer and Andrew Hubbard, brings an exceeding amount of strength to their dancing.

And sorry, guys, with the exception of Hubbard, the movement muscle found amid these vibrant dancers performing Friday night belonged all to women.

He, along with Zimmer, who also dances with the troupe, was announced as dancing the lead in the concert. He actually had only a limited presence in Friday's concert, though.

Zimmer and Hubbard, who have a mix of credits including Broadway dancing, bring a diverse mix of styles to their work as represented in their "Aren't We All But a Dance of Particles?" The work is having its premiere in this concert series.

There is a slim narrative at work in "Aren't We All?" It apparently is sort of a choreographic pilgrimage through major experiences and with symbolic characters found in life - an empress who is a kind of earth mother, strength struggling against adversity, old age, death, the presence of evil and the promise of new life and vitality that emerges triumphantly at the conclusion. The dance uses the stony presence of actor Derek Snow, as The Poet, showing up generally at the beginning of the segments. He offers cryptic lines such as "Let go ... and transform" and "Evil wants to make you think it doesn't exist."

But no matter the literary vagaries. The dance is enough.

"Aren't We All?" begins jauntily with some impressive tap dancing from a character called The Fool. The program indicated Hubbard was to dance this but a woman dancer, unfortunately not identified as the replacement, did the expert turn.

Things really get moving with the appearance of the ensemble and the live drumming by O. Yemi with "The Magician, Episode II."

The women's movement in "Episode II" is jerky, then slinky and topped off with can-can high kicks that the ballet world calls grands battements.

Mia Deweese's solo in "The Empress, Episode III," is a dynamic display of how the Hubbard-Zimmer choreography requires the dancers to make quick shifts in positions.

They often speedily move from poses to sharp leg extensions (arabesques) and then slide to the stage floor for sinewy movements there.

While Deweese expertly achieves these quicksilver movements, she, by no means, is the company specialist in such fluidity.

Other dancers, in other episodes, accomplish similar transitions equally as well in both solo work and ensemble moves.

The most poignant moment in the concert comes in "Death: Transition into a New State, Episode V."

Zimmer and Hubbard show a masterly expertise in selecting music that richly serves their choreography. In "Episode V," they use two songs by Laurie Anderson - "One Beautiful Evening" and "Slip Away" - and Brandi Carlile's "Sixty Years On."

During "Slip Away," Tiffany Frost, Ashley Klein and Alessandra Marconi engage in anguished movements of inconsolable grief - arms stiff in the air, heads thrown back like broken dolls.

As Anderson's lyric of grief over a lover's death continues ("Ooo they slip away into the remains of the day"), the Exhale trio looks every bit the Greek chorus in the throes of lamentation only in contemporary dance gear.

But "Aren't We All" ends on a note of jubilation. The dancers strut. Hips twitch. Pelvises thrust. Heads shake in a blur of flying hair.

Exhale's euphoric finale manages to capture the same life-affirming mood that the musical "Hair" achieved as it went out so inspirationally with "Let the Sunshine In."

Publication date: 03-26-2007

Friday, November 2, 2007
Press Release MSND

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company Presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream as A Winter Wonderland Holiday Treat A Midsummer Night's Dream

CINCINNATI, November 2, 2007 – Starting November 30th, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company presents A Midsummer Night's Dream as a holiday treat.

An adventure through a winter wonderland where ice fairies and snow-covered sprites play magical games with four young lovers, A Midsummer Night's Dream opens November 30th at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company Theater in downtown Cincinnati. Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is excited to collaborate with the Exhale Dance Tribe, who will be portraying the fierce fairies. This nationally recognized dance troop will be dancing in a winter wonderland to jazz-inspired music. The cast also features Cincinnati Shakespeare Company resident actor Chris Guthrie as Bottom and guest artists Sherman Fracher as Titania/Hippolyta and Mark-Douglas Jones as Oberon/Theseus. A Midsummer Night's Dream is directed by Brian Isaac Phillips and is generously funded by Production Sponsor Convergys, Design Sponsor Bartlett & Co, and Guest Artist Sponsor Towne Properties.

The Cincinnati Shakespeare Company design team will create a whimsical and dreamlike atmosphere for A Midsummer Night's Dream. The elegant atmosphere will stimulate the senses: lots of crisp light, shadow, and silhouette. The music is a jazz scoring that connects the three groups: i.e. the lovers, fairies, and mechanicals. The winter wonderland setting will create a topsy turvy world for the young lovers. Snow and ice is beautiful from above but can prove highly treacherous on foot. Resident Costume Designer Heidi Jo Schiemer's costumes will throw the unsuspecting lovers, dressed for spring, into the Fairy Queen's wintery domain frosted over by fury. Ms. Schiemer's fairies are inspired by the devilish sprites in The Spiderwick Chronicles.

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is enthusiastic to collaborate with Exhale Dance Tribe. In January of 2008, Exhale Dance Tribe will be featured in Dance Magazine as one of the top twenty five dance companies in the country. The dancers will be the magical sprites serving the Fairy King and Queen, Oberon and Titania. The all female cast of dancers is led by Choreographer and Co-Artistic Director/Owner of Exhale Dance Tribe Missy Lay Zimmer. Ms.Zimmer is a Cincinnati native who was recently awarded a Cincinnati Entertainment Award for Critical Achievement in Choreography for her work in Christmas Yet to Come at The Know Theatre of Cincinnati. Her work has also been featured at the Contemporary Arts Center, The Aronoff Center for the Arts, and the Cincinnati Fringe Festival. In addition to her Cincinnati credits, Ms. Zimmer has worked with the Broadway and national companies of Cats and the national tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. Ms. Zimmer's choreography will be a contemporary jazz-inspired movement piece. "Exhale will bring an athletic, hypnotic, and fierce female prowess to the fairies," said Ms. Zimmer.

Sunday, September 9, 2007
Risky shows often more interesting

BY DAVID LYMAN | ENQUIRER CONTRIBUTOR

Writing about a new dance season is always problematic.

It's a sure thing that the season's most popular events will be things like "The Nutcracker" and "Romeo & Juliet" - pieces that audiences are least afraid of.

Monday, June 4, 2007
A Hypnotic Human Experience

BY KATHY VALIN | CITYBEAT

Exhale Dance Tribe's opening performance of "A Hypnotic Human Experience" at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival starred company founders Missy Lay Zimmer and Andrew Hubbard in a mini-Broadway review with their lithe "tribe" of 11 toned dancers. The piece dazzled in nine short vignettes, easily conveying their audience to that magic place where oversize emotion reigns supreme and the physicality of the young movers onstage is mesmerizing.

Dancing to recorded music heavy on guitars and female vocalists such as Brandi Carlisle, Mindy Smith and Tori Amos, with a little Pop and Hip Hop, these confident and engaging performers turned the small performing space in the Contemporary Arts Center's black box theater into a theater for the signature Exhale style of attack, emotion and attitude that makes this troupe one of the most innovative and enjoyable to hit the Cincinnati scene in some time.

Aside from a brief showing from choreographers Zimmer and Hubbard in a duet (Hubbard is nursing an injured foot), the stage belonged to nine young women who demonstrated preternatural poise and virtuosity in a blend of Hip Hop, African, jazzy and modern movements. Whether they were quick, slow, playful, sinuous, strutting, yearning, sharp, or pleading, there was a sensitivity and camaraderie between the performers that drew on the shared mastery of their stunningly flexible limbs, their centeredness and their joyfulness as they flung themselves from deeply grounded positions into sharply whipping turns and explosive leaps.

Standout soloists Alessandra Marconi, Kristen Malarky and Mia Deweese each took an emotion and ran with it, though their performances sometimes outclassed the concept of the dance. And, if in some of the ensemble work, I felt as if I was seeing the culminating moment of a show without quite knowing what exactly that show was about -- that didn't make it any less fun to watch.

The most astonishing segment was one in which there was no movement whatsoever. In "Everything In Its Right Place," we saw everyday reality as a grim progression in the style of short news photos. It was illuminating to watch a changing series of imaginary but resonant motionless tableaux in which the dancers were caught mid-gesture in a representative series of innocent group scenes like talking or eating which gradually morphed into archetypal recreations of violence and horror. It was left to the viewer to make connections between them. "A Hypnotic Human Experience" was, in fact, pretty hypnotic and certainly human, drawing as it did on young movers giving nothing less than their all in performances that seemed to come from the center of their being. Grade: A