Dance company graceful, athletic

Piccolo's Dance at Noon series presented Unbound Dance Company for a powerful and beautifully danced performance whose difficult theme was survival of life's challenges -- specifically cancer and the lives it touches.

Spoleto 2010 News, stories and reviews

Your guide to the events, performances and highlights of this year's festivals.

Hope is the thread throughout the choreography, which takes a group of 13 talented dancers from ensemble dancing to smaller groups and solos.

Artistic directors Caroline Lewis-Jones and Susan Marie Dadney are dedicated to their subject matter, and the dancing by them, as well as the rest of the company, is full of expression and graceful athleticism.

However, the text between dancing and the literal staging of a bedside moment when a loved one passes away can at times be too literal and predictable. The extraordinary physicality of the dancers is enough to impart the feelings and expressions of grief without giving too much information.

One of the most successful sections was "The Journey," in which the entire cast expertly moves through the small stage with a feather, a symbol of hope, being passed around and danced with at times playfully, but always giving strength and support to those who have it.

The movement is energized and full of long-reaching limbs that span a variety of gestures and styles.

Another highlight was "Fix You," which showed the significance of support by others in difficult times.

Mary Lee Taylor Kinoisan played electric violin, some original works with the depth and skill that wonderfully matched these talented dancers from Columbia.