2001 Arts Odyssey, cont'd [ BY THE EDITORS ]

Photography by Blaine Stiger

Artists to Watch

CURATOR
Sewickley Valley Historical Society and Sweetwater Center for the Arts: When these two Sewickley-based groups teamed up -- both share the landmark Old Sewickley Post Office building -- something remarkable came about: "A Brush With History: Artists of the Sewickley Valley." This exhibition celebrated the valley's visual arts heritage, beginning in the mid-19th century and moving along to Generation X. Works from artists with local, regional, national and even international reputations were ferreted out and brought together under one brush. The scholarship has added to our understanding of art in Western Pennsylvania and beyond. (Mike May)

DANCE
Sreyashi Dey: This Odissi Indian classical dancer and director of Srishti Dances of India uses dance for worthy causes, as in last season's benefit performances for shooting victim Sandeep Patel and Gujarat earthquake relief. To popularize her art, she commits to cross-cultural collaborations with ethnic and mainstream artists, including choreographer Mary Miller and storyteller Alison Babusci. Her next project, "Chitrangada," a dance-drama with an epic-sized cast, premieres Oct. 20-21 in the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater (the former Regent Theater), East Liberty. (Karen Dacko)

DANCE
Lynda Martha-Burkel: Assuming the Playhouse Dance Co.'s associate artistic directorship in 1999, this Churchill native hit the ground running, immediately importing offerings from established and emerging choreographers, plus orchestrating new collaborative children's dance-theater with "12 Dancing Princesses." She skillfully maintains parity among ballet, contemporary and jazz idioms, programming viable works, like David Parsons' "The Envelope," that challenge the students and encourage artistic growth. (Karen Dacko)

JAZZ
Flora E. (Flo) Wilson: Since 1999, she's been the featured vocalist with The Bottom Line Too Sweet Lounge in Homewood every Friday from 5 to 9 p.m. In her work with this and other bands throughout the years, Wilson demonstrates her ability to take command of jazz standards and to reach an audience with her powerful voice and her great warm smile. She has a number of recordings to her credit and was named "Best R&B Female Vocalist of Pittsburgh" by the Champions Association in 1991, 1993 and 1998. Flo Wilson says that she enjoys making people happy "by opening her mouth and making a joyful noise." (Tim Stevens)

BACK

Dance:
Ying Li and
Jiabin Pan

It takes two to tango. Postmodern dance may contest that, but classicism celebrates it. The ballerina sparkles because of her cavalier's polished attentiveness, while his courtly deference intensifies his independent prowess. In supported adagios, they complement and balance each other's artistry.

Exemplary are principal dancers Ying Li and Jiabin Pan, seven-year veterans of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. Since leaving China in 1992, these married Squirrel Hill residents have autonomously honed their respective talents in contemporary works and international teaching gigs while refining their unrivaled classical ballet partnership.

"For me, when we work together, more pressure is on us, as we are a husband and wife -- there are no excuses. Also, as principals we have much more responsibility," says Jiabin Pan.

However, adds Ying Li, "We can talk about and research our roles to develop a shared vision."

While Ying Li admits that limited flexibility presents her biggest challenge, this international-ballet-competition gold medallist and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Creative Achievement awardee exhibits articulate technique: impeccable footwork combined with intuitive phrasing, shading and nuances.

Classically schooled in Beijing, she rapidly adapted to contemporary American ballet, offering distinguished performances in Dwight Rhoden's acrobatic "Ave Maria" (to be repeated here in May) and futuristic "Seventh Heaven" last season, and in Lisa de Ribere's otherwise weak "Amazing Grace" (1995). A captivating Swanilda in "CoppŽlia," a capable Aurora in "The Sleeping Beauty" and a dazzler in "The Nutcracker," Ying Li shows that her forte remains the story ballet, which draws from her rich technical and dramatic resources.

Ying Li approaches her classical roles with knowledge "of how they are supposed to look and from that, I set goals," she explains. "Every role is my favorite." (She will offer classes starting Sept. 9 at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill.)

Jiabin Pan, a competition medallist and Beijing Dance Institute alumnus, is an exceptionally versatile artist gifted with masculine grace and stunning virtuosity -- secure multiple turns, dynamic jumps and awesome aerials, delivered with impressive accent marks. Those punctuations add excitement to his riveting performances, as in Lynne Taylor-Corbett's "The Ballad of You and Me" (1995).

He supplements his training with running and swimming to build additional stamina for physically demanding roles. In new works, he says, "You have to find your own way," which facilitates artistic "progress." Although he excels as "Swan Lake's" jester, "Romeo and Juliet's" Mercutio and "CoppŽlia's" Frantz -- roles suited to his comic flair -- his recent performances in Kevin O'Day's sultry "...on the spot" (2000) and Glen Tetley's abstract "Rite of Spring" demonstrate newfound sensuality and drama, respectively.

Together, their unique onstage chemistry effervesces across international stages from Corpus Christi to Hong Kong. Their interpretation of The Nutcracker's "Snow Pas de Deux" exalts classicism, while their combined theatricality salvages the banal "Cleopatra." Via last season's meticulously coached "Giselle," the couple attained heightened artistry: she, greater emotional depth; he, stronger characterization. Both are anticipating upcoming premieres, especially Kevin O'Day's, which will use a score by Sting.

The dynamic duo is now on a par with international artists and would be welcome in any major company. However, in Pittsburgh, "We have the opportunity to work with great artists. We feel happy here," says Ying Li. Thus, they opt to perform here, delighting Pittsburgh audiences with their combined genius.

-- Karen Dacko

Visual Arts:
Charles Olson

"You won't believe what I'm looking at," Charles Olson teases. "There are cows eating grass, wheat fields."

OK, maybe this doesn't sound like any big deal. Except that Olson's doing a 360-report from a telephone booth in a small French village. Specifically: Jailly les Moulins, a pinpoint in Burgundy of 140 souls. Olson has commandeered the only phone in town, waiting for the call from PITTSBURGH mag to talk about his art, which requires punching in an elongated international number that, in math-speak, seems transcendental.

To kill some time, Olson has been reading Peter Robb's "The Man Who Became Caravaggio." The man who became Charles Olson the artist was born in Stanton Heights and grew up in Shaler Township. During the year, the Indiana, Pa., resident is associate professor of art and chairman of the fine-arts department at St. Francis University in Loretto.

So what brings him to Jailly les Moulins? Inspiration, for one. (He also travels to France about once a year with his French-born wife, Marie, and their two children to visit Marie's parents in Epinale). He talks of the creative nourishment he derives from being "in completely different environments."

The day following this interview he was heading to Alesia, site of the famous battle between the armies of Gallic leader Vercingetorix and Julius Caesar. He was especially eager to see the artifacts in the museum there. Not only for historical reasons. The shapes, color and texture of archeological finds such as bronze, tiles and pottery shards inspire his drawings and paintings -- the kind that inspired a double-feature of his work last fall at Shadyside's Gallery in the Square and the James Gallery in Dormont.

"Roman, Celtic, American Industrial" all spark his creative neurons. About his most recent work, he states, "[It] represents my continued fascination with object, beauty, memory and history. These forms are hybrids gleaned from discoveries in the museum, the flea market, the sky, the junkyard and the ruin."

In art-speak, Olson is not easy to pigeonhole -- and he himself resists being "trapped by some dogma or school." Although seemingly "abstract" at first glance, Olson's work isn't really abstract-expressionist in the garden variety use of the tag. He talks about "grounding in some observation of a thing."

You also can observe a topography brought about by his detailed treatment of surfaces. A texture evolves through his marriage of gesso and paint. Acrylic, that is. "Oil is too slow," he says. Through "working" his canvases -- "color and form and texture want to come out," he adds -- he avoids a finished piece that comes across as "too vinyl." "Like a sofa from the '70s," he laughs.

Olson's vision has attracted an impressive following. In addition to his many local exhibitions through the years, he's exhibited both nationally and internationally. He's also represented in a number of corporate, university and museum collections, including the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Osaka (Japan) Museum of Modern Art and the Galerie Lillebonne in Nancy, France.

Speaking of France, Olson reports that Scott Blasey from local rock band The Clarks would be coming over, and he and Scott planned on singing and playing guitars in Brittany. "It's like a vitamin to painting," he explains. "It gives you energy. All the cobwebs go away."

For more than a year, Olson has been exploring sculpture again, something he had pursued in college. "During the last five years, I've been painting the sculpture I'd like to make, and started to make sculpture forms," he says.

Call us when it's ready, Chuck.

-- Mike May