2019’s dance season has
been jam packed in its first five months – new premieres, restagings and an
abundance of innovative collaborations. With the sheer volume of material, it
isn’t always possible to see everything in person, so below are two reviews
that were generated from video screening.
Kristin Damrow &
Company
Impact
ran at Yerba Buena
Center for the Arts – January 31st –February 2nd
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| Hien Huynh and Allegra Bautista Photo RJ Muna |
Back in 2018, Kristin
Damrow & Company took a foray into the architectural world with EAMES, a contemporary dance that mined
the life and work of Charles and Ray Eames. A year later, they continued their
investigation into line and perspective with Impact, a full-length world premiere informed by another
architectural movement, Brutalism. I asked a designer friend of mine for some
extra insight on the mid-century form known for massive structures, sharp lines
and concrete materials, and he shared this, “the word sells it short; Brutalism
has extreme elegance through its heaviness and permanence – these aren’t just
big, clumsy blocks.” Over the course of an hour, Impact certainly spoke to this range of properties, qualities and
tones.
Impact
featured a large cast, five featured soloists and a chorus of ten performing a
stream of continuous dance vignettes. With straight lines, quiet arms, wide
parallel stances and unwavering stares, the choreography for the corps was
often my favorite movement happening on stage. Wonderfully interpreted by the
cast and thoughtfully crafted by director/choreographer Kristin Damrow, their
militaristic precision and severity felt not only inspired by Brutalist
architecture, but a physical embodiment of it. But this wasn’t the only
position Impact took with respect to
Brutalism. Throughout the work, the different scenes were redolent with an
array of moods and textures, some very subtle and gentle. In one moment, the
gaze led and rotated the body around its axis while in another, the hand
adjusted the slant of a dancer’s chin – both provided a nuanced nod to discernment,
perspective and smoothness.
Still more moods were to
come as Impact continued. Plenty of
confrontational material arose in the different chapters. Performers flung each
other across the space and threw one another to the ground; arm wrestling motifs
abounded. Angular, marked motions in the spine, arms and legs imbued the phrase
material as did a retreating motif of backwards salamander-like crawling. And
speaking of the physical vocabulary itself, I thought Damrow’s inclusion of
old-school mid-century modern technique - Horton laterals, Limón curves and
Graham contractions - was both inspired and brilliant. Looking to movement that
was part of the same era as Brutalism brought yet another layer of connection
to the table.
Watching a recorded work
of course affects the viewership lens in several respects. For example, I
imagine that the design elements, both scenic and lighting, were quite
profound, considering the dance’s source material. It was just harder to get a
feel for them on video. I also had a sense that while Impact was by no means story-based, there was some character study
and perhaps some narrative threads running through the work. In particular, Anna
Greenberg felt like a monarch reigning over the space in several of the scenes.
I wonder if further narrative threads would have been apparent in person.
One element that was not
at all affected by the video experience was Aaron M. Gold’s original score.
Gold’s composition was truly something to behold, an aural investigation of concrete’s
voice. Infused with a gravel-y undercurrent, the sounds and music were stark,
cold and detached. And while very complex, the score also had a simplicity and
cleanness to it that felt evocative of the complex building material. I will
say though, that the dynamics of both the movement and the score were fairly
similar throughout the piece, which at close to an hour, made Impact feel a bit on the long side.
Alyssandra Katherine
Dance Project
Unraveled
ran at ODC Theater –
April 11th-13th
In the spring, Alyssandra
Katherine Dance Project unveiled their newest world premiere at ODC Theater, Unraveled, an epic quintet that casts an
unflinching, raw lens on addiction. Its wide scope tackles the topical
narrative from scientific, medical and personal points of view. It dives deeply
into addiction to substances, to people, to behaviors, to achievement, to
controlling one’s environment. And it vulnerably brings light to that painful
reality of being caught in a destructive pattern, wanting things to change and
feeling powerless to break out of the cycle.
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| Jan-Matthew Sevilla Photo Kofi Kumi |
Conceived and created by
Artistic Director Alyssandra Wu, Unraveled
utilizes many disciplines in sharing its message - video, text, objects, audio
soundscore, music, song (the piece is bookended by an absolutely stunning solo
rendition of The Beatles iconic Blackbird)
and of course movement. Though I wouldn’t categorize the work as strictly mixed
discipline or even Dance Theater. Instead Unraveled
reads almost like a dance play, and a great one at that. Choreographic and
movement vignettes are layered with and interspersed by theatrical scenework.
Text-based chapters are infused with gesture. A narrator, or as she called
herself in the work, ‘a guide’, leads the audience through the journey. And throughout,
powerful, potent and completely relatable arcs leap from the stage.
Choreographically, Wu
delivered a wonderfully broad swath of material – from body percussion to
gestural phrases to technically-lush syntax. High throttle physical sections
saw the ensemble spinning frenetically and desperately changing levels. Dancers
unapologetically pushed each other to the ground and punched their fists into
the air. Yet, these tortured motions were also counterpointed with moments of
empathy and compassion – duets where support and care were paramount; hands
gently offering assistance; unison motions reflecting a shared, common
understanding. Another impressive element woven throughout Unraveled was the appearance of ropes, cords and tethers. A direct
connection to the title of the dance, these various objects had a profound narrative
effect. Whether mooring two dancers together, hanging from the light grid or
being strewn about the stage, the sense of being ensnared and caught by an
outside force was undeniable.
Because of the interplay
between dance episodes and text-based scenes, Unraveled had great variety in dynamics, intensity and atmosphere.
So, even though it was close to an hour and fifteen minutes, it didn’t feel
overly long. Having said that, the structure was a bit curious. At around the
fifty-minute mark (when then was still a good twenty-five minutes to go), there
was a very clear break point. A particularly poignant scene had just concluded
and the lights went down. When they came back up, the cast had changed costumes,
the stage space had transformed, the lighting pattern was altered and there was
a much more optimistic/hopeful tone to the work. From this point on, Unraveled mined recovery from addiction.
While this last third didn’t feel like a different dance, it definitely felt
like a separate part of the overall artistic idea. Perhaps experimenting with
an intermission between the two sections, even though the first one is quite a
bit longer than the second, would be an interesting exercise.
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