“Weave the Wind” by choreographer Diane Coburn Bruning with dancers Hannah Bruce, Misha Glouchkova, and Crystal Serrano. Photo by Alexander Sargent.
Chamber Dance Project’s performance at Arena Stage’s Finchandler Theatre was a charcuterie board for dance lovers. The nine brief works, including two world premiers, offered glimpses into larger worlds that left the audience wanting more.
…offered glimpses into larger worlds that left the audience wanting more.
The first half of the evening featured excerpts from works spanning a decade of creative output by Founding Artistic Director, Diane Coburn Bruning. The act began with “Four Men,” featuring Noah Parets with Ian Debono, Michael Mengden, and Marius Morawski. A playful blend of clownish antics and technical showboating, Parets had big shoes to fill stepping into a lead role most recently danced by Patric Palkens. Palkens, is an exceptional performer and a longtime Chamber Dance Project artist and rehearsal director. He retired from performing in June at the end of last season, performing “Four Men” as an encore. Parets was crisp and snappy as he penguin-slid across the floor and whipped through the pirouettes. He was clearly enjoying playing to all four sides of the audience.
“Weave the Wind,” which followed, was a contrast, focused inwards. Set to a halting and tentative excerpt from Caroline Shaw’s “Plan and Elevation,” the twitching and nuzzling phrases made dancers Hannah Bruce, Misha Glouchkova, and Crystal Serrano feel like animals in a quiet forest—a window onto an ecosystem without narrative. “Time has Come” brought a return to the cheeky feeling of “Four Men.” Cecily Khuner whizzed through a perky and uptempo solo, before a dancer-less performance by the Chamber Dance Project String Quartet (Principal violinist Sally McLain, Karin Kelleher, Benjamin Wensel, and guest violist Uri Wassertzug.) Part of Bruning’s mission with Chamber Dance Project since its inception in 2000, has been to showcase dance with live music as well as the interplay between dancers and musicians. The quartet played the entire program and, from their onstage seats, they were as integral to the performance as the dancers. “Time has Come” closed with a duet between Khuner and Parets which had the audience cackling as Khuner quite literally walked all over her partner.
The final two works in the first act, “EXIT WOUNDS… and then they come home” and “Journey,” were more emotionally intense. “EXIT WOUNDS… and then they come home” featured an excellent showcase of male partnering as Mengden tossed Debono through the air. The tension between sharp and smooth faded into the dark as Mengen rocked Debono in his arms in silence. “Journey,” dedicated to the choreographers parents, was yearning, and the most neoclassical piece of Bruning’s work on the program. Set to the well known Adagio from Samule Barber’s String Quartet No. 11, “Journey” was filled with suspended lifts that inevitably spiraled into descent. Even as Morowski tore the skin off his knee on the floor, smearing blood all over Serrano’s white leotard as she rolled down his leg, the dancers were precise and effortless.
The second act began with “Tensión Por Vos,” a tango inspired work from Argentinian choreographer Jorge Amrante. Premiering only a few months ago in June, “Tensión Por Vos” was originally intended to be choreographed in person, but Amarante was unable to obtain a visa to the United States due to the current political climate. This resulted in a series of video calls from Amarante’s living room in Buenos Aires, and the work was created at a distance. “Tensión Por Vos” looked more streamlined and sleek than it did at its premiere, filled with wide, arcing pathways and snappy, tango footwork.
The final two works on the program, William Moore’s “Murmur” and Christian Denice’s “Testimony,” were both world premieres. During a pre-performance conversation, Bruning explained how quickly the two works had come together, with both choreographers getting into the studio for the first time on January 3. The two premieres were also the only works on the program originally designed to be performed with the audience on all sides. During the talkback, Denice described how, during the rehearsal process, he tries to watch his work from all sides: “I like that you get to see things from the perspective that I get to see in rehearsal” he said. He followed up with the idea that the forced perspective of a proscenium theater shouldn’t be the defining way that dance can be beautiful: “It could be placed in the parking lot and people could still get something out of it.”
Moore’s “Murmur,” inspired by the murmurations of birds, was a whirlwind of neoclassical and contemporary partnering as the four dancers in light green continually combined and recombined in different groups of twos. An expansion of this work, featuring two additional sections, will also appear on the program for Chamber Dance Project’s June performance. “Testimony” was similarly kaleidoscopic, but more earthy and grounded. Performed by the entire company in vibrant shades of orange and blue, the asymmetry of seven dancers—four men and three women—gave “Testimony” an intriguing sense of internal tension. No matter how parallel the phrases ran, there was always rich counterpoint coming from a dancer on their own, outside the partner dynamics of the group.
This performance marks the beginning of Diane Coburn Bruning’s last year as the artistic director of Chamber Dance Project. After 26 years at the helm, Bruning will be retiring at the end of this season. A new artistic director will be announced later this spring, with an introductory conversation with the public planned around their June production. It marks an exciting new chapter for a legacy DC dance company.
Running Time: One hour and 30 minutes with one 15-minute intermission.
Chamber Dance Project In the Round ran January 10, 2026 at Fichandler Stage, Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, 1101 6th St SW, Washington, DC 20024. For more information and tickets for future performances of Chamber Dance Project, please go online.
