Dance Company Official Says Times’ Critique Was Out of Step

For years, Times dance critic Lewis Segal and our dance company, Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Theatre, have been at odds. We have always felt Segal was a narrow-minded reviewer who is insensitive to styles of dance that differ from his own aesthetic preferences.

Never has this seemed more apparent than in his review of the dance concert at Cal State Los Angeles (“Six Solo in Varied ‘Prime Moves,’ ” Calendar, Sept. 27) in which he made Tamica Washington’s dance “With All Due Respect” seem totally worthless. Segal also used his review to slam Tamica’s mother, choreographer Lula Washington.

Generally, Segal attacks work that appeals to our audiences. We, in turn, tell our fans that if Lewis Segal hates something, it is probably very good, and let it go at that.

However, we could not look the other way this time.

Tamica choreographed “With All Due Respect” as a senior dance project at UCLA. Audiences loved the work and raved about it. Several prominent choreographers admired it so much they told producer Neal Barclay he had to see the piece. Barclay saw it on tape and he was also genuinely moved. He surprised Tamica and us (her parents) by asking her to do it on his “Prime Moves” show.

“With All Due Respect” is a very personal dance that focuses on Tamica’s struggles as she comes into womanhood and finds herself forced to be a “rock” for others to lean on, when she herself needs a strong shoulder to lean on.

This is an important theme for African-American women, but Segal dismisses Tamica’s text on this subject as mere “inanities.”

Tamica builds the dance around a chair in the middle of the floor symbolizing the resting place of strength that the elder women in her life represent, a seat she one day hopes to occupy. These elder women are who give her strength.

Tamica circles the chair, sits briefly, only to roll off. She leaps on the seat for strength and stumbles, seeking to stand on her own. As she struggles with internal conflicts, she runs through movements that show her pulled in different directions. Then she moves into African steps that show her reaching into her roots for strength.

At the end, the dancer seems to have overcome her turmoil. Only then can she stand in their chair embracing, spiritually, the women who encouraged her to be strong. She lists their names as a quiet, parting expression of love in the last five seconds of the nine-minute work as the lights fade out and as her arms circle overhead beautifully.

Admittedly, this is not one of those “deep,” sophisticated, intellectual dances where you scratch your head to figure out what the dance is about. Tamica created a nice, straightforward, sentimental work that audiences seem to appreciate. The movements and the structure of the dance embody the themes of the dance almost too obviously.

Yet, Segal’s review claims the work “never found a choreographic shape to hold its theme.”

Segal went on to link Tamica’s work to her mother’s “Circle of Dance” (which Segal concedes he did not see) by saying Tamica “flung a list of names at the audience as if that alone were a worthy tribute.” The dance was the tribute, the names only a closing touch.

Segal ended his review of Tamica by saying “As the twig is bent. . . .,” suggesting that Tamica is following in her mother’s footsteps (which she thankfully is). This is a cheap shot and it is unworthy of a Times critic.

Segal is only one man, but his voice reaches millions through The Times. I encourage audiences to come out and see for themselves and to draw their own conclusions.

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