NEW YORK — These days, no one can resist a centennial.
Not to be left out, the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Tuesday presented "The Flight Project," six dances honoring (you guessed it) the centennial of the Wright brothers' maiden flight.
Commissioned by the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company to mark its 35th anniversary, the works by Bill T. Jones, Bebe Miller, Dwight Rhoden, Sir Warren Spears, Doug Varone and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar conclude BAM's 2003 Next Wave Festival. Yet, despite the snazzy idea and the talent of the choreographers and company, "The Flight Project" never really gets off the ground.
Flight and dance are a natural fit — perhaps too natural. Jones notes in a press handout that he was overwhelmed by "the too familiar metaphor of flight." But underwhelmed might be more to the point. Despite moments of intelligence and beauty, especially in Jones' delicate dance, "and before ...," the choreography is largely uninspired.
In "On the Wings of Angels," Spears uses male ensemble work to depict the struggles and triumphs of the Tuskegee Airmen, black pilots who overcame a racist military to fight with great courage during World War II. There is plenty of saluting, pointing to the skies and running big, dancerly circles around and across the stage. In "Eurydice's Flight," Zollar reimagines the ancient Greek myth of Eurydice, whose husband, Orpheus, attempted unsuccessfully to bring her back from the dead with his music. Zollar explains that Eurydice finds self-discovery in the underworld and hence "flies." Despite the efforts of veteran dancer Sheri "Sparkle" Williams, it is hard to discern any self-discovery happening in Zollar's barely lighted underworld, a sleazy clubland peopled with writhing bodies and flashlights.
Varone has more success with "The Beating of Wings," which sets clever ensemble work to Stravinsky to show the uneasy birth of a community's idea or dream, as danced by Williams. Supported and at times limited by two men — the Wright brothers, perhaps? — Williams' compact, muscular body bucks and shakes, ascending at the very end with the help of a pulley system.
It is telling that the program's moment of transcendence occurs through mechanical means. On its own, "The Flight Project" offers little to make the human spirit soar.