PARTNERS IN PERFORMANCE
Different worlds meet on drum line
STEVEN BROWN

They belong to different worlds. The members of N.C. Dance Theatre perform the "Nutcracker" for sedate audiences at the Belk Theater. The members of West Charlotte High School's drum line rev up the crowds at football games.

"But they're kind of about the same things," choreographer Uri Sands says. "They're about commitment. They're about excellence and standards. They're about dedication."

And they're teaming up for a new work NCDT premieres this week.

There's so much sound that the room can barely contain it. It crashes back in on whoever's on hand.

It doesn't stop with your ears. With each beat of the rhythm, it rattles your rib cage. Well, of course: West Charlotte High School's drum line ordinarily cuts loose in wide-open spaces -- a football stadium or a gym.

It isn't meant to be cooped up in the school's theater.

But this is exactly the sensation Uri Sands has in mind with the new piece he's choreographing for N.C. Dance Theatre. It's inspired by the sensory-overload world of pep rallies and ballgames.

"You can imagine being in a room with drums and 500 or 600 kids," he says later in an interview, thinking back to his teenage years in Miami. "It was pretty rambunctious."

"They're coming out there and they're playing all the music -- the drums and the cymbals and the horns. And all of a sudden you see the football team parade through. Or you see a halftime show and your band comes out on the field, and they do their thing. Those are where I was getting the images from."

When NCDT premieres Sands' "All in Your Trunk" on Thursday, the drum line will flank the dancers on the Belk Theater stage. But West Charlotte's theater -- where the dancers and drummers have their first session together -- doesn't offer that kind of room.

Sands puts the dancers onstage. The drummers plant themselves directly below there on the theater's main floor. The idea is to start by having the two groups demonstrate their parts for each other. The drum line goes first. But as soon as it starts to play, the rhythm and energy work their spell.

The dancers don't even try to stand still. Their arms twist and jab. Their feet hint at steps. Their bodies wriggle.

The drum line gives them a wallop they don't usually get from the music they perform to, dancer Jhe Russell says later.

"It pushes us forward," Russell says. "It's a good feeling."

When the dancers get going for real, hints of marching and cheerleading pop up. But the energy and athleticism of Sands' choreography push beyond any single subject.

The title -- "All in Your Trunk" -- is a phrase the drummers shout near the end of their routine. It comes from the Atlanta rapper Killer Mike, whose song "Akshon" talks about music booming from speakers in the trunk of a Cadillac. The song is about "getting everybody excited," West Charlotte band director Melvin Wright explains.

In "Akshon," the excitement emanates from a "thousand watt amp with woofers in back." In the theater, the drum line has all the wattage it needs.

N.C. DANCE THEATRE

The performances also include:

"New City South" by NCDT's Mark Diamond. It's an expansion of a work unveiled last season. Using music by Bela Fleck, it describes "Charlotte and aspects of people in Charlotte -- what they do in the evening," Diamond says. One of the new scenes plays out around a pool table.

"SALT" by Alonzo King. The San Francisco-based choreographer created this for NCDT in 2005. Accompanied by a world-music ensemble with a Middle Eastern flavor, it blends otherworldliness and excitement.