By Jennifer Lee Carrell
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Orts Theatre of Dance ushered in summer in its traditional al fresco manner, performing the annual "Orts in the Park After Dark" concert in the DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center in Reid Park last weekend.

This year, the company was joined by guests from Semaphor Danceworks of Phoenix.

The highlight of a fine evening of dance was the premiere of an excerpt from Neurosporatic, a full-evening work of aerial dance being choreographed by Orts artistic director Anne Bunker and company member Matthew Henley. (The complete piece is due to premiere in February 2002.)

Using a vertical box-shaped trapeze suspended above a second horizontal rectangular trapeze, Bunker and Henley created spare, often breathtaking compositions made from multiple bodies with no apparent fealty to gravity.

The clutter that has marred a few other recent works here dissolved into elegant simplicity.

Charles Thompson's "Onadark" danced martial arts into powerful unison, injecting the movement through reverberating techno-music by Juno Reactor.