Levydance is a company to watch, now and in the future. Programs by emerging young choreographers typically meander from a strong work to a not-so-strong work. Benjamin Levy is not typical. His San Francisco-based company gave a fresh, polished Dance Place debut on Friday.

Levy's aggressive "Portal" features superb dancers in juicy, textured choreography. Partnering phrases juxtapose moments of intimacy with aggressive, almost violent jolts. A male dancer tilts his female partner like a plank as her hand slips slowly up his chest, just before he drops her to the ground. Accompanied by Christopher Lancaster's yearning score for electric cello, "Portal" has an intensity that persists to the final, abrupt blackout.

Upcoming: LEVYdance

by JULIE BLOOM
the Village Voice

In pOrtal, an angry, forceful piece, he weaves dancers together in abstract patterns, offering a extreme movement vocabulary.

Benjamin Levy's choreography bridges the gap between raw kinetic energy and emotion, and at Dance Place Saturday his San Francisco company moved organically, bodies pressing against bodies in ways that seemed both natural and revelatory

BENJAMIN LEVY GREW UP before "The O.C.," in that once white-hot California Zip code 90210. Today he is finding himself, if not quite a celebrity, at least a certified up-and-comer. Levy has been lauded for a "sense of theater [that] sets him apart from the herd." Critics from both The Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle offered up effusive praise for his debut performances, and earlier this year Dance Magazine named him one of the "Top 25 to Watch" in 2004.
That's really something considering Levy is just 23.

New directions
Benjamin Levy and LEVYdance expand their inventive and funny physicality.
By Rita Felciano
THE FACT THAT Benjamin Levy's LEVYdance company is only two years old makes the clarity of its choreographer's vision all the more remarkable. The similarity of the four pieces showcased in the company's latest performances (ODC Theater, Dec. 2) reflected a fresh, highly personal approach to dance. But it also signaled Levy's relative inexperience in approaching thematic material from a wide range of perspectives. That could be Levy's next step and something to look forward to.

Levy fills his choreography with a pulsating kinetic energy that demands excellent physical control and a willingness to risk everything. His dancers – Christopher Hajin Lee, Cambra Garell, Lauren Slater, and Brooke Gessay – who are given collaborative credit, seemed to relish the challenge. Whether arching over each other's backs, recoiling from drop-dead descents, or wielding limbs like cleavers, they joyfully gave their all. (On the day before the opening, company dancer Lily Dwyer was injured; Levy took over her parts and more than ably acquitted himself.)

Dance review: LEVYdance does it outdoors

Rachel Howard, Chronicle Dance Correspondent

Friday, November 14, 2008

For all the physiological complexity of young Benjamin Levy's whiplash choreography, some aspects of LEVYdance's sexed-up appeal are simple: He works with good-looking dancers, and he knows how to make them look good.

Continuing through Saturday, that attractiveness extends to the setting. For its seventh home season, LEVYdance has opened its own little nook of SoMa, an alley off Folsom and Eighth streets that plays village square not only to LEVYdance's headquarters at Studio Gracia but also to the atelier of couture designer Colleen Quen and an automotive repair shop.