Nancy Karp + Dancers
On Beauty
David Brower Center,
Berkeley
February 10th,
2018
As the 6:00pm Saturday
showing of Nancy Karp + Dancers’ On
Beauty concluded, an audience member asked Karp whether a particular
element of the performance had been on purpose. Karp answered quickly,
“everything in this piece is intentional.”
Intentionality was
certainly evident in the new work, held this past weekend at the David Brower
Center in Berkeley. The current exhibit in the Center’s lobby, titled “Douglas
R. Tompkins – On Beauty”, pays tribute to conservationist Douglas R. Tompkins
with a collection of vast photographs by Antonio Vizcaíno. Stunning images of
national parks in Argentina and Chile graced the walls, lands that Tompkins had
long been dedicated to preserving and protecting. It was amongst these pictures
and the Center’s own structural elements that Karp’s On Beauty would unfold, a thirty-minute quintet performed by the
incomparable cast of Sonsherée Giles, Sebastian Grubb, Amy Lewis, Megan Lowe
and Charles Slender-White, set to a score by longtime collaborator Charles
Amirkhanian.
Pictured: Megan Lowe and Sonsherée Giles Photo John Hefti |
On Beauty began above us, in the Center’s square atrium. We looked up and saw
the ensemble taking turns sliding, turning, rebounding and suspending off the
railing. Bodies and arms rippled delicately, carving out the space. Waves of
sound permeated the room; low enough in tone that it made you wonder whether
this was indeed water or the subtle roar of an animal. These opening moments
revealed one of the strongest intentional themes running through the work. That
of scarcity. Only parts of the dance were visible, and everyone in the audience
had their own unique lens, depending on where they were standing in the space.
Considering the Center’s celebration of conservation and this particular
conservationist, On Beauty’s comment
on scarcity (which would continue throughout the work) was particularly
poignant.
Then the dancers moved
to a corridor on the Center’s main level. With a spectacular, vibrant photo in
the distance, they, costumed by Giles in the same bold colors as the photograph
(again another intentional connection), began to explore the air around them.
Hands carefully and mindfully washed and swept the space; the spine, core and
legs eventually joined in the movement; and the phrase accumulated and changed
levels. But everything grew from those first hand motions, cleaning and
protecting the landscape.
Pictured: Sonsherée Giles Photo John Hefti |
We walked down that same
corridor into another slightly larger room, the concrete pillars and floor
suddenly making a more visible impression. In this next group sequence, the
sweeping arms and legs recurred from the previous vignette, while new material
was also added in. Standing on one spot, the dancers swayed gently, as blades
of glass in the wind. Pathways were investigated through the circuit of the
limbs, chaîné turns in plié, and leg extensions enveloped into passé. The
dancers clustered against the stone pillars of the building, altering the visual
perspective and transforming the pillars’ surfaces. Though standing vertical,
the movement encouraged you to consider them as the base, the floor. All of the
choreography was so calm and legato, whether a simple hand gesture or a dynamic
lift, and much of it (the swaying like blades of grass) evoked the natural
processes, elements and wonders depicted in the nearby images.
On Beauty led us into another small corridor, keeping its eye on the
building’s structural details. Here as well, the walls were not simply framing
the action; they were active players in the scene – as supports, as counterbalances
– Karp engaging the surrounding environment in the overall experience. Again,
the thread of scarcity ran through. There was dance happening on a nearby staircase,
but depending on where you were, you might not have seen it (I didn’t). Once
you arrived at each performance ‘station’, moving around wasn’t really an
option. At least not on Saturday night with the size of the audience coupled
with the small space. But again, perhaps that was purposeful!
The cast re-assembled
for On Beauty’s final chapter, a
section about looking outward and being in community. Arms peeled up from body,
eyes looked beyond the fingers. Shinbusters (whose piercing beams had unfortunately
been tough to avoid throughout the performance) projected shadows on the walls,
making it feel like many more souls were present. There was an awareness of
sharing the space, certainly with other individuals, but also perhaps with
other beings and other lifeforms. A desire to be cognizant of co-existence.
No comments:
Post a Comment