Pictured: Mallory Markham and Jessica Egbert Photo: Summer Wilson |
The Anata Project
notjustmoreidlechatter
Joe Goode Annex, San
Francisco
Oct 15th,
2016
Rain and wind whirled
outside, harmonizing together in a blustery fall storm. Inside Joe Goode Annex,
The Anata Project’s sixth home season brought a similar meeting of powerful and
forceful elements – the body and the mind. How do thoughts, feelings and
beliefs translate into actions and reactions? How are the physical and the
emotional connected? Can we separate the two? Would we ever want to? Founder
and Artistic Director Claudia Anata tackles these penetrating questions in an
evening of world premieres, inviting the viewer to consider a confluence of
human states through film and contemporary dance.
Opening the program was
Anata’s It Fades, a short dance film
featuring company artists Jessica Egbert, Julie-Ann Gambino, Yuko Mondon and
Mallory Markham. In a stunning collage of shadows and light, small scenes,
short phrases, gestures and postures appeared and disappeared on the screen; existing
for a moment and then morphing into something new. It Fades, as the title suggests, reveals the ephemerality and
fleeting nature of dance and movement, and does so with beauty, grace and an
innovative spirit. And starting the evening with a prelude film (as last year’s
home season did) also affords a wonderful opportunity for the audience to quiet
outside forces and enter into this space and this work.
After a short pause,
Egbert, Gambino, Mondon and Markham took the stage in the program’s main event,
notjustmoreidlechatter. Mondon faced
the audience, while Egbert, Gambino and Markham sat facing upstage. Her entire
body pulsed through the opening solo, erratically changing directions,
frenetically twinging, desperately searching for an elusive calm and quiet. It
looked like she was fighting a treacherous battle, caught between control and
chaos. Eventually she joined the other three dancers on the floor, and the
quartet began a meditative, systematic series of rolling – rolling through the
spine, rolling on the floor. The entire time, they faced away from us, truly at
one with the tasks and movements at hand. Through a subsequent set of cluster
structures, they emerged from this formation and notjustmoreidlechatter expanded into the space.
While not attempting to
relay a story (neither a linear nor abstracted one), notjustmoreidlechatter was definitely steeped in a strong narrative/conceptual
foundation, as the connection between the corporeal and the emotional oozed out
of every pore. Anata, through her inspired choreography, and the dancers,
through their superb performances, were able to demonstrate the range and
breadth of the complicated human experience. Circular motions – running in a
circuit, turns in attitude, quick grand rond de jambes - suggested cyclical
thoughts, perhaps even a rumination cycle. Slow careful walks spoke of
uncertainty, trepidation and maybe even fear. Repeated and crescendoed leg
swings signaled a haunting, infectious, pervasive belief. While the majority of
the material was of a heavier and more serious note, joy and abandon also
played a part in notjustmoreidlechatter.
Upper body releases sang of wonder and contentment; contact-improvisation style
partnering of community, solidarity and support.
Mid-way through notjustmoreidlechatter, Anata injected a
repetitive unison sequence, the four performers wiping the floor with their
hands, in a windshield pattern. While the movement was very mechanical, at the
same time, it evoked a feeling of comfort and familiarity in its repetition.
Interspersed through this mesmerizing sequence were individual moments of dissention
- arms extending to the ceiling, changes of direction – and then returning to
the original movement. A statement illustrating the complexity of group
dynamics and individual agency.
As the piece closed, the
quartet sat in a diagonal line, feet pointing towards stage right; the lights began
to dim and they bowed their heads gently. It was a striking scene, visually, narratively
and physically. A point of repose, a cadence, an ending, yet not really the end
at all. It could have just as easily been the beginning. The cast could have
started the early rolling motif, only at a different facing. The body/mind
connection is one that isn’t done, it isn’t finished. It’s a continual process
and notjustmoreidlechatter is a
stunning reminder of that surety.
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