The Bay Area dance scene is in the middle of a generational sea change. Younger performers, who have enthralled and enticed us in the works of well-established dance companies, are stepping out to present their own choreography. Emerging dance companies and dance makers are filling the stages this August, in time slots that might otherwise languish, and the results have been very promising.
Longtime ODC and Post:ballet dancer Mia J. Chong’s EIGHT/MOVES debuted at Z Space last weekend. I caught the final dress rehearsal and was mightily impressed with the three works, showcasing a strong cast of seven dances in work choreographed by Chong in collaboration with a trio of celebrated dance makers. Ubiquitous dancer Erin Yen, who established her Dragon Dance contemporary company in 2020, has a new piece debuting this weekend, as part of the FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival, at ODC Theater. The fun will continue October 4 & 5 with Aviva and Molly Rose-Williams presenting GAME:TIME at ODC Theater. A workshop showing this summer was delightful. These physically gifted sisters have us open-jawed in awe one minute and laughing out loud the next with a universal humor that will tickle the funny bones of the whole family.
Thursday evening, I had the pleasure of being part of the hip young opening night audience for BODYSONNET’s OTHER/self, running through August 23 at CounterPulse. In 2022 I reviewed BODYSONNETT and was excited by how promising the work of this nascent company was, and clearly the collective’s artists have spent the past two years further honing their craft to arrive at this concise and fresh evening of contemporary dance. OTHER/self is comprised of solos and duets that explore relationships. The program features the magnetic pairings of Babatunji & Charmaine, Alaja Badalich & Caitlin Hicks, and Colin Frederick & Moscelyne ParkeHarrison, alongside standout solo dancing by Hadassah Perry and Mio Ishikawa.
Like movements of a symphony, this quintet of works appears sequentially without complicated set changes or the disruption of performer bows interrupting the flow. With the exception of one small easily placed and removed set-piece, the works have no cumbersome props, inter-dance costume changes, projection, or hand-held microphones to distract us. Lighting Designer Dante Ison uses saturated colors and varied directionality to create unique worlds for each. The cleanness of the production values allows the choreography to shine brightly within CounterPulse’s compact white box stage. The steep tiering of the auditorium seating creates an intimacy between performer and observer, adding to the vibe of collective absorption.
OTHER/self alternates between the larger duets and the more interior solos. Whether by choice or happenstance the two solos are performed to classical piano music, while the duets unfold to throbbing electronic beats of club music. This symmetry lends the proceedings a clarity of vision that makes me curious about how intentionally the evening was or was not created. Are there master visionaries guiding this ship or did fate play a role in creating such a cohesive and yet choreographically dynamic evening?
The cast of BODYSONNETT's OTHER/self takes a final bow opening night at Counterpulse; Photo J. Norris
The program opens with Weightless Burden: The Duo choreographed by: Charmaine Butcher in collaboration with the dancers, Alaja Badalich (performing courtesy of AXIS Dance Company) and Caitlin Hicks. In the program, Butcher states their intention to embody and explore “grief, nervousness, pleasure, shame, joy and reluctance towards trust.”
Moods flow from confident and self-assured swagger, hands skating down undulating torsos in pleasure-rich celebration to heartache and doubt with palms hovering over breast and crotch. The sheer costumes which to varying degrees provide a veil over naked bodies, seem an apt metaphor for the ways in which Butcher’s choreography exposes our true selves. Hicks excels at the deeply emotive, with plunging arabesques and worried glances, in contrast to Badalich’s swishing hips, arching pelvis, and sinuous arms defining her attraction to happiness.
Solo performances can be difficult to sustain, but Hadassah Perry is magnetic from start to finish in Next To Seek and Be Sought, choreographed by Kira Fargas in collaboration with Perry, to Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8, known for its tragic sonorities. Perry rotates slowly out of a moment of stillness. Throughout, Fargas uses pauses to allow viewers to absorb the performers’ shapes. This happens initially as an arm, cupping a missing companion, lingers almost imperceptibly at shoulder height before continuing to wrap around creating a self-hug.
The movements, intelligible without being caricaturist, lean in toward mime. Perry reaches up to grasp and pull a rope downward, the weight of the object evident in her wide stance and tense limbs. Seated, her legs pretzeled, she is wrapped in a moment of despair before reaching for a foot to untangle and free herself. The purposeful choreography is well-matched to Perry’s precise and lucid style.
The centerpiece of the evening is “NO CONSEQUENCE.” Choreographed and performed by Colin Frederick and Moscelyne ParkeHarrison it imagines a youthful queer “power couple,” bright and shiny in public, plagued by doubts, jealousy, and envy in private. The music, edited by ParkeHarrison, is as trendy as the couple.
Hot-pink light glazes the room and this alluring duo as they take turns strutting along a runway or adopting provocative poses splayed against the walls. They are tempestuous, supporting and caring one moment and full of withering rejection the next. They vie for primacy. Carefully tending of their public personas, while in private pushing a needy partner away, only to cling to them the next moment. Have they bonded to lift their own brand, or to feel close to someone else caught in the same gyre of desire and ascension? Or is this a piteous version of modern love?
Frederick is tall and charismatic, an elegant feline mover. ParkeHarrison commands attention with her solid modern dance technique and fetching, penetrating gaze. Their partnership is captivating. A synchronized sequence of adapted club moves is masterful. A slapping section, part clapping game/part spousal abuse heightens the tension until fatigue causes the spat to disintegrate. The final moments find them connected at the mouth, sinking to their knees.
Japanese movement artist based in New York City, Mio Ishikawa offers a short enigmatic dance titled “MA.” It begins in silence with Ishikawa bearing a heavy canvas sack to the far corner. Her kneeling figure is revealed in an angular warm light, as she unwraps the cloth, revealing a pile of sand into which she plunges her fingers. A diagonal light beckons her to rise and follow the impetus of her joined hands along its axis. Johannes Brahms’s solo piano piece Drei Intermezzi, Op. 117: I, a piece he once referenced as being a lullaby to his grief, is introduced as the stage fills with a colorless light.
In a pleated below-the-knee dark skirt and grey tank-top, Ishikawa assumes dramatic sharp poses, tipping back to create a diagonal of her body from head to toe; squatting over widely spread feet, her legs form a right-angled arch. There is a sense of ritual and rigor to her stances. Returning to the canvas and its mounded grit, she crouches awkwardly. Facing us, with her knees folded sideways, she reaches behind herself to probe the sand anew. For me, the sand represented a lost ancestor or a place of great meaning from which Ishikawa both emanates and wishes to return.
Searching for more meaning, I googled the meaning of “MA” in Japanese only to learn that it is a word with many varied and nuanced meanings. Suffice it to say that ma’s definition ranges from an everyday expression of hesitation to profound connotations touching on magic and demons, or truth and reality.
Choreographers and performers Charmaine & Babatunji have been developing their piece everything led to this over many months. A study on the impermanent aspects of a relationship, I have had the privilege to see them perform versions of it in February at James Graham’s “Dance Lovers,” and in March at RAWdance’s CONCEPT31. Real-life partners, virtuosic performers, amazing improvisational allies, and incomparable risk takers, this couple has yet to disappoint.
Charmaine enters with Babatunji, almost twice their size, draped over their shoulder. His head and arms dangling above the floor, Charmaine’s arms wrapped tightly around his knees. Reaching mid-stage, they unceremoniously drops him on the ground.
The physicality of this pair is unusually strong, and richly layered in trust and purpose. He drags Charmaine’s prone body by an arm along the floor. They fall into one another, limbs cascading over and around the other’s frame.
The final section of the dance features brief episodes in which lights fade up and then out having revealed the couple in varied choreographic moments. The couple may be strolling arm in arm, or perhaps Charmaine is in a laidback arabesque her standing leg supported by Babatunji. Once Babtunji cups his partner’s head tenderly in his palm as he stoops to spin their body atop the floor. We catch a glimpse of Charmaine astride Babatunji’s shoulder, or standing on his back as he balances nonchalantly on all fours. We gasp during the scary moment when he tosses them up from his cradled arms just as the lights fade and his catching of them seems at risk. The evolution of the piece and the partnership is intensely interesting in the way it balances strength and vulnerability.
Review by Jen Norris, published August 23, 2024
________________________
Production Credits
OTHER/self is an evening of solos and duets produced by BODYSONNET.
The program features Babatunji & Charmaine, Alaja Badalich & Caitlin Hicks, Mio Ishikawa, Colin Frederick & Moscelyne ParkeHarrison, and Hadassah Perry with Kira Fargas in pieces that explore our relationship to each other and ourselves.
Weightless Burden: The Duo
Choreography: Charmaine Butcher in collaboration with Alaja Badalich (performs courtesy of AXIS Dance Company) and Caitlin Hicks.
Performers: Alaja Badalich and Caitlin Hicks
Music: Biosphere, Mella Dee, The Moments, The Whatnauts
To Seek and Be Sought
Choreography: Kira Fargas in collaboration with Hadassah Perry
Performed by Hadassah Perry
Music: Pathétique 2nd Movement; written by Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by Marioverehrer
You Are There; written by Harry Sukman and Paul Francis Webster, performed by Frank Sinatra
Costume: Styled by Kira Fargas and Hadassah Perry
NO CONSEQUENCE
Choreographers and Performers: Colin Frederick and Moscelyne ParkeHarrison.
Music: Edited by Moscelyne ParkeHarrison
Intel War (Vatican Shadow), Fiera (Arca), Spectacle of Ritual (Kali Malone), Le Code (Myth Syzer), Blue Noise.
Costume Design: vipère by D Calhoun
Program note: NO CONSEQUENCE explores the dynamics of a “power couple,” the identity of youth and the different lenses of how queer people are perceived together in the public eye versus in private.
MA
Choreography and Performance: Mio Ishikawa
Music: Drei Intermezzi, Op. 117: I. Andante moderato by Johannes Brahms
Set Design: Mio Ishikawa
everything led to this
Choreographers/Performers: Charmaine & Babatunji
Music: Dreaming of Kelly Pool by Mary Lattimore and Paul Sukeena
Costume: Charmaine & Babatunji
Program Note: everything led to this is a study on the impermanent aspects of a relationship that is continuously in process.
Comentários