Dakshina brings on the spring at Artisphere

Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company's open rehearsal tonight showed that its upcoming performances this weekend at Artisphere have great creative range.  The first piece, Vasanth, celebrates the endurance and triumph of spring.  It's thus an excellent piece to see in early December.  Vasanth fuses Indian classical and folk dance with modern dance.  It's narrated with words and precisely articulated gestures, and it takes the internal spirals of classical Indian dance out into the dance space and across the ensemble of dancers.  

Two other pieces are readily appreciable modern dances.  By the light, an expression of death from ALS, is gut-wrenching to watch; it's intensely physical self-strangulation.  A counterpoint to that dance is Since You've Asked, a lyrical torch dance with wonderful floor work.  Two men dance this duet, which ends with a silent segment and a gesture that evoked to my perverse mind a queering reference to American Gothic.  As much as By the light is a beautiful horrible dance, Since You've Asked is a beautiful beautiful dance.  Together with the Indian fusion of Vasanth, these Dakshina dances promise an abundant spring.