Sticking Together, but Never Getting Too Close By JENNIFER DUNNING Diane Coburn Bruning knows the value of music performed live for dance. All eight of the pieces presented by her Chamber Dance Project on May 28 at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College in Manhattan were accompanied by live music, a pleasure in itself. Ms. Bruning also knows how to put together movement and get the most from her dancers. What was missing from the evening, however, was any sense of the person behind the work. Her dances stood out, with two exceptions, for their somewhat chill proficiency. Even more troubling was the feeling that Adam Hougland, the program's young guest choreographer, was playing it safe. The first exception was an excerpt from Ms. Bruning's ``Suspended,'' choreographed last year and set to music by Gorecki. In this duet, Peter Boal, a guest artist from the New York City Ballet, moves like the wind and with an Apollonian simplicity. He and the earthier John Welker never stray far from each other. They also never stay close, though they grapple in partnering that suggests intense emotion with pure physicality. In ``Journey,'' another duet, danced to the familiar Samuel Barber Adagio for Strings, Lisa Tachick wraps around a steady Mr. Boal until she slips off at the end, as he walks out. Ms. Bruning works fresh variations on the ways one body can cling to and stretch away from another in this piece, dedicated to the memory of her father. But her other four dances whirl by nearly indistinguishably. ``Bowery Poetry Club, Et Al.,'' choreographed by Ms. Bruning and Victor Quijada after a concept she developed with the poet Bob Holman, came alive in the moments when the hilariously spunky Cristin O'Keefe Aptowitz read her no-nonsense poetry. The piece was also built around poetry written and read, more solemnly and less clearly, by Edwin Torres. Mr. Hougland's new ``All You Have,'' danced to music by Ravel and Dohnanyi, revolved around a drooping Mr. Quijada and three bouncing consorts (Ms. Tachick, Bonnie Pickard and Christine Winkler). It was a well-made piece, its gleaming surface devoid of the scratches that up-and-comers like Mr. Hougland can and should make with impunity. The dance ensemble was completed by Stephan Laks. The musicians were Christopher Lee, Philip Payton, Dorothy Sobieski, Stan Corfman and Thomacz Rzeczycki. Source: The New York Times

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