Post:Ballet presents
Six Pack
Yerba Buena Center for
the Arts Theater, San Francisco
July 24th,
2015
When you think of the
term ‘six-pack’, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Whatever it might
be, a common theme is present – six individual parts combining to make a whole.
When you buy a six-pack of drinks, six individual bottles or cans make up that
item. To get six-pack abs, six separate muscles must be present. A six-pack is
both one entity and six entities at the same time.
For Post:Ballet’s annual
summer season, running this weekend at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Six Pack is an apt title. While Six Pack certainly refers to this being
the company’s sixth year of performance, it also points to a collection of six
individual items that come together as a whole. And that whole here is not only
this amazing 2015 summer program, but also something bigger. Under the
leadership of Artistic Director Robert Dekkers, Post:Ballet is a contemporary
performance powerhouse with limitless potential. Six Pack exudes Post:Ballet’s uncompromising vision, passionate
drive and forward trajectory.
Many six-packs contain
six of the same item, but sometimes a variety is in order. And with their 2015 Six Pack, Post:Ballet offers an outstanding
sampler with classic, lite, spicy, experimental, hybrid and limited edition
choreographic flavors.
Part of Post:Ballet’s
first summer season at Fort Mason’s Cowell Theater, 2010’s Flutter is the classic selection in Post:Ballet’s Six Pack. Though not a ‘classical’ piece
in any way, Flutter has both survived
and thrived over time, which is what makes it a classic. And it still has a
rare hypnotic power, leading its audience on a captivating journey from the
first moment to the final leg circle. A trio set to two very different musical
parts (the first a dynamic clapping score by Steve Reich and performed by The
Living Earth Show; the second, the Sarabande from Bach’s Violin Partita No. 2
performed by Abigail Shiman), Flutter
examines the interplay between movement and sound like no other. Having never
seen the exact same cast twice, each viewing provides the opportunity to learn and
experience the constructive depth in a new way. 2015’s iteration ushered in new
costumes by Christian Squires, who also danced in the piece, and if I’m not
mistaken, a slightly different opening scene. But Dekkers’ choreography is
still this work’s driving force – the intricacies in hands, fingers, torso and
legs along with the purity of piqués in attitude. Performance after performance,
Flutter maintains its choreographic
integrity while never compromising freshness and vitality.
For those who might want
something a little lighter in nature, Pitch
Pause Please may be the dance for you. But this particular lite flavor is
neither less-than nor lacking anything. Rather, this world premiere is a work
of grace and flow that allows the audience to enjoy the sheer beauty of artists
collaborating. The lights came up to reveal soloist Jessica Collado and
percussionist Andrew Meyerson together on stage; Collado’s movements and facial
expressions reacting to the various sounds. While I’m sure that Pitch Pause Please had a set choreographic
framework, it truly looked like Collado and Meyerson were collaborating in the
moment; the moving body and Samuel Adams’ original score becoming one. Ringing
chimes were met with ringing extensions of the limbs, staccato notes with
prancing feet.
2014’s Yours is Mine was definitely the spicy
choice of the evening. Footlights, bare stage and an overhanging light grid set
the scene for this aggressive, avant-garde, no apologies quartet. Jeremy
Bannon-Neches, Aidan DeYoung and Squires played their game of domination,
crawling, circling each other like primitive creatures, or at least with
primitive instincts. Who would take control? Then as Cora Cliburn entered the
space, the mood shifted. Jealousy, fighting and competition still read in the
men’s movement and demeanor, but they were completely transfixed, and maybe
even hypnotized by Cliburn.
Experimental flavors are
the ones that are being ‘tried out’ to see if they resonate or if they don’t. Reason does not know is one of these exploratory
taste tests. A duet that Dekkers made for the Kansas City Ballet in February of
this year, Reason does not know has a
purposeful instability that informs much of the duet, literally and
figuratively. The relationship between the two dancers (Cliburn and Ricardo
Zayas) was difficult to characterize. On the one hand, there was smoothness, an
ease between them, mostly present in the beautiful lifts. But there was also a
detachment and struggle for balance, particularly in the relevé walking motif.
This is one experimental flavor profile that I’m still thinking about, but I
would like to try it again.
ourevolution (2014) is the hybrid flavor in the Six Pack. Much about this piece can touch the viewer: the tech
animation, the costumes/scenic design, the choreography, and for this
particular viewer, the narrative undercurrent. In ourevolution, Dekkers has written a physical essay, documenting
concurrent states of being and simultaneous contrasts. This is why the work is so
relatable. Five dancers spend the first part of ourevolution in a walking sequence. Right away, there are
questions. Are they going somewhere or nowhere? Are they walking to meet or to
avoid? The sense of distance and closeness, affection and disengagement is so
potent even in this pedestrian movement. The piece crescendos with various
solos, duets and group phrases over its twenty-plus minutes, and ends with a hopeful
note of affection. Squires lays his head on DeYoung’s shoulder in a moment of
pure tenderness and ourevolution
closes with a final choreographic cluster - support, care and awareness.
Limited Edition screams
specialness and scarcity, and those are the elements that make up Do Be: Family, the second world premiere
on the Six Pack program. Part of a
full-length
evening next fall (the result of a year-long collaboration with The
Living Earth Show), Do Be: Family is
a narratively driven dance theater work exploring the chaos and complexity of group
dynamics and systems. Whether enthusiastic or forced, participation in those
systems is at the heart of this work. Exaggerated faces and a set of expressive
gestures (I think I even saw dancers checking imaginary watches) run
throughout; their repetition providing equal parts emphasis/anesthetic and
stabilization/destabilization. Many of the poses, especially in a featured duet
by Squires and Vanessa Thiessen, are steeped in manipulation. Both dancers meticulously
moving and placing each other into specific attitudes and positions. The score
contains a number of well-known folk songs that are continually interrupted with
altered rhythms and adjusted meters. This created a creepiness that totally fit
with the scene unfolding onstage. There are many contemporary artists for whom
collaboration drives process. But there are actually very few who seek
collaboration as a force for change, for creative growth, for departure from
the norm. Robert Dekkers is one of the few, and with Do Be: Family, it shows.
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| Post:Ballet dance artists Cora Cliburn and Jeremy Bannon-Neches and company Photo: David DeSilva |
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