Amy Seiwert’s Imagery
presents
SKETCH 7 – Wandering
Cowell Theater, Fort
Mason Center, San Francisco
July 22nd,
2017
The seasons evocatively
converged over the weekend as Amy Seiwert’s Imagery presented SKETCH 7 – Wandering at Fort Mason Center in San
Francisco. It was a beautiful warm summer weekend, especially by SF standards,
but on stage, it was all winter, Franz Schubert’s Winterreise song cycle to be exact. Twenty-four separate songs with
poetry by Wilhelm Müller, the score shares the story of a protagonist on a
‘winter’s journey’ (Winterreise
translated), trekking through a natural environment, encountering a myriad of
forces and searching for contentment. This was the source material that fueled
Amy Seiwert’s new ballet for the seventh edition of Imagery’s SKETCH series.
SKETCH is designed to
challenge choreographic patterns and processes. True to form, Artistic Director
Seiwert posed a mammoth puzzle for 2017’s edition, something that was new for
her – choreograph a full-length, narrative dance. Wandering is the result of that experiment. A two-act ballet where
piano, voice, text and choreography unfold together in a parable about
humanity’s quest for happiness.
As the company waited in
the dark, only dim lanterns peppering the space, James Gilmer walked slowly onstage
from one of the right wings. He placed a record on the record player and gently
lifted the needle. Having completed this task, he walked towards the other
seven dancers and instantly, Wandering
was off.
Right from the start, a
number of thematic and theatrical elements emerged that would inform Wandering until its final blackout.
First was a long red coat. This coat was integral to the work, because it
signaled who was embodying the protagonist role at any given moment. All eight
of the Imagery artists would don this piece of clothing throughout the
performance, each of them having a chance to experience the central character. And
sometimes, taking on that responsibility was welcome, sometimes it was reluctant,
sometimes it was even indignant and forced. Next was a palpable and conflictual
pull both towards the group and against the group. Seiwert created a glowing
choreographic container that examined both extremes – a real conversation
between lone-ness and togetherness; seclusion and community. An atmosphere of
sorrow and isolation leapt from the stage but at the same time, the dancers
seemed pulled towards each other like magnets. Last was a specific
choreographic point of articulation: the head. Hands would lead the chin, heads
would lean on each other, palms would encircle the skull, and eyes would stare
potently, looking for answers. This treatment of the head particularly stood
out, not just because of its cerebral quality, but because when you walk,
surprisingly, it is the head that moves first, not your feet. And with Wandering being about a journey, an
emphasis on the head, and leading of the head, spoke volumes.
 |
| Shania Rasmussen, Gabriel Gaffney-Smith, Ben Needham-Wood, Jackie Nash and Alysia Chang Photo: Chris Hardy |
But there were even more
noteworthy elements in Wandering that
deserve mention. Seiwert’s extraordinary treatment of ballet vocabulary
surprises, delights and continues to astonish at every turn. It’s not just
injecting a flexed foot here and there or experiencing a step on demi-pointe
instead of full pointe. Seiwert mines further, delving into what a flexed foot
can do as a transitional movement in lifts and promenades, or how a reaching
extension suddenly broken by flexion makes a narrative statement. Pencil turns
on pointe also entered the vernacular, as did arms exploring through the space
and lifts breathtakingly ascending from the floor. Every Imagery dance artist
excelled in both technique and artistry. And such silent jumping! Especially
impressive was the Act II pas de deux by Jackie Nash and Ben Needham-Wood, which
was technically a pas de trois, with Needham-Wood managing to effortlessly hold
one of the lanterns for the duration of the duet.
Susan Roemer’s costuming
was another example of true inspiration. Of course there was the red
coat/protagonist connection, but that was only one part. Act I’s short unitards
oozed winter with their snow-white base and tree branch motifs curving around
the torso. And then in Act II, the unitard colors switched, perhaps indicating
that the journey had moved into night. Near the end of Act I, it started gently
‘snowing’ onstage, and the effect was quite something (light and scenic design
by Brian Jones) – it really felt cold in the theater. And just like with
Roemer’s costumes, in Act II, the fallen snow turned black, again likely
alluding to darkness, or perhaps a darker portion of the protagonist’s journey.
Soon, Imagery’s Wandering heads to New York for the
Joyce Theater Ballet Festival (the piece was supported by the Joyce Theater
Foundation). While I won’t get a chance to see that performance, I do wonder
what the dance will be like on a different stage. The Cowell Theater is an
intimate space, to be sure, and while it didn’t ever look crowded (even when
all eight dancers were onstage), it would be fascinating to view it in a
different venue.
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