The saw the Friday night performance of the Momentum: New Dance Works at the Southern Theatre. This is a program of dance pieces commissioned by the Walker Art Center to showcase emerging choreographers and dance theatre artists.
This weekends program featured Chris Schlichting’s love things and Maia Maiden and Ellena Schoop’s The Foundation, et cetera.
love things opened the evening dressing the southern theatre like a billowing wedding chapel circa 1981. My experience of the piece was my personal journey attempting to discern the disconnect between the content rich design and the lukewarm composition.
The tone of the piece brought images of Falcon Crest and Andrew McCarthy movies (privileged, optimistic, sunny). The costumes were perfect day dresses and athletic wear of the era (though the hair seemed to be distinctly 90s). Elliot Durko Lynch’s sound design was thrilling, breathing into the space like a living entity, bringing tension to the naïve dialogue of the dancers.
The company of 6 danced youthfully and exuberantly, each uniquely articulating the gestures of giddy romance. The choreography borrowed heavily from each dancers unique vocabulary and the ensemble moments were fascinating to watch. Several the love duets also “popped” including the extension and longing of Jessica Cressey and Justin Jones and the cautious sensuality of the Hannah Kramer and Morgan Thorson.
When I suggest that choreography was lukewarm, I don’t mean to suggest that the piece lacked passion, tempo or precision (I didn’t look at my watch once!). I feel the boundaries of the piece were set very early and no moments exploded beyond those boundaries. Though rich in ideas and talent, my experience of the piece was rather, pale pink (and this view of romance may have been exactly what was intended).
The second piece was a huge contrast in volume and clarity of intention. The choreographers drew heavily on a variety of influences, including hip-hop, African American history, West African dance and mask, generation dialogue, and spoken word.
The opening was very provocative as Maia and Ellena descended from the audience interrogating the space with questions about the future of the black community given the end of the Black Panther era and our modern urban segregation. Gender, race and class issues were also at the forefront of the dialogue as the piece moved back and forth between the 70s and today.
Given the wide range of aesthetics used in this piece, and the nature of premiering a new work, it makes sense that some of the ingredients didn’t fully gel (and a couple seemed under rehearsed). But the content was powerful and specific, including the spoken word performances of Tiyo Siyolo and Selfish and the powerful dancing of Roxanne Wallace and Aneka McMullen.
I don’t know much about how the program is managed by the curators, but I feel some of the flaws of The Foundation, et cetera could have been corrected by an outside eye prepared to adapt the staging to the Southern stage. Many of the scenes took place so far up-stage it was difficult to engage in the drama. There was one false ending that could easily have been corrected.
The Foundation, et cetera brought a lot to the table in terms of discussion. Selfish addressed the audience directly about his identity. The dialogue was timely given the prospect of a black man entering the white house and the proposed end of the hip-hop era. The potential of this company as a catalyst for thrilling dance, storytelling and provocative politics is just beginning (I’m very excited for what they do next).
The piece harkened in my memory one of my favorite performance pieces of all time, Con Flama. Con Flama was a production of Penumbra Theatre Company drawing on a range of aesthetics. It was ritten by poet Sharon Bridgforth and directed by Laurie Carlos. It was also a beautifully woman-centric, gesture rich, musical and lyrical theatrical event.
It was nice to see a full house at the Southern for these new pieces. A few people had on “Where’s Jeff?” stickers in reference to the sudden outsting of Artistic Director Jeff Bartlett. Is this just an artistic turn over, or the beginning of a huge real estate turn over on the West Bank? When will artists have a hand in the leadership and management arts organizations?
It seems the current state of arts organizations creates a lot of opportunities for consultants and administrators, but provides less and less money for the people who are the meat of the field… artists.
(This will be interesting to observe.)
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