NoMi LaMad tries to live up to its name

By Lucia Mauro | Special to the Tribune
April 21, 2008

With the esoteric and chic-sounding name NoMi LaMad, Chicago's newest dance company might be confused with an indie band or a designer fashion label. But movement is unquestionably its driving force. The moniker, a merging of an obscure reference to North Michigan Avenue and the founders' names, also expresses the troupe's non-categorizable nature. Artistic directors Laura Kariotis and Madeline J. Renwick like to surprise audiences with eclectic styles. Their debut concert during the weekend at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts stretched from contemporary ballet to modern and ballroom with energetic but mixed results.

The company's emphasis on multiple genres naturally led to a showcase-style program. Kariotis' music video-influenced opening work introduced the dancers, who whipped out aggressive pirouettes and high kicks, and injected gymnastics and club dancing into the fog-engulfed stage. Subsequent pieces centered on one style or a fusion of those forms.

Most effective were Annette Thomann's "Metamorphosis," with the women on pointe supported by the group's singular male dancer, Jacob Wallingford, and "Shall We?"— a lush and witty tango-fusion finale choreographed by Kariotis, Renwick and Alex Artega.

"Metamorphosis," set to Philip Glass, played with the idea of optical illusions. The women, executing lovely pointe work, radiated out from the male center and seemed to break into fragments of themselves. "Shall We?" eschewed the confrontational partnering of tango in favor of ensemble and solo virtuosity. In between, other diverse movement experiments emerged, most notably Kariotis' "En-Cased," a futuristic fantasy set in and around a giant Plexiglass enclosure. But because the Plexiglass was not utilized inventively throughout the dance, it felt like an unwieldy prop.

Throughout, three dancers distinguished themselves: Renwick (a tall dancer with a serene mystique); spitfire Victoria Lynn Bunch; and the versatile Krista Paulsen.

ctc-tempo@tribune.com

Troupe melds names, style
By Sid Smith | Tribune critic
April 18, 2008

Its name is pretty unwieldy, not one you'd want to say too quickly or risk twisting your tongue: NoMi LaMad.

Turns out it's not some exotic, ethnic folk troupe hailing from a faraway island. Nomi LaMad is just a combination of the names of the new troupe's co-artistic directors: Laura Kariotis and Madeline Renwick. The LaMad is Laura and Madeline yoked together; NoMi refers to North Michigan Avenue, where Kariotis lived for some years.

The aesthetic is something of a hybrid, too. The troupe embraces ballet, modern dance, jazz and even ballroom as part of its mission.

"I know the ballroom will surprise a lot of people," Kariotis says. "But we really felt the community is saturated right now with straightforward contemporary work. A lot of it is strong and wonderful, and we knew we'd have to go at it in a different way and give audiences a different taste. Otherwise, we run the risk of just being another troupe."

Kariotis hails from Milwaukee, where she danced for six years professionally. She was performing with a troupe there, and one early concert involved ballroom music. "I knew I really wanted to integrate it in my choreography."

She met Renwick while working with another Chicago-area troupe, and they teamed up after leaving. With backgrounds in both ballet and modern, they're not out to inject ballroom into their work like a chapter in a vaudeville variety bill.

"We don't want to go the industrial route, the way ballroom is so blown up on TV right now," she says. "We want a genuine fusion."

For the troupe's debut concerts at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts this weekend, the eight works will include the tango-influenced "Shall We Dance?"

"We're a troupe of eight women and one man, so it's not a typical ballroom tango piece," Kariotis says. "There's duet dancing, but the couples aren't attached or holding each other. We want it to be a work and not just presentational ballroom."

sismith@tribune.com

NoMi LaMad Dance Inc.
A bit of ballroom in the mix

When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Where: Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St.

Price: $20; 312-337-6543.