Dance Review: Existentially Nathan, Nathan Trice/Rituals

Sunday started as a craaaazy only in New York day for me. I was busy writing a piece on another dance group in the morning, then I flew uptown to see my best friend’s son professional acting debut in a reading for a film, then met with a friend for a power dinner on the Upper West Side, and, within a thirty minute window still got down to LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts to see Nathan Trice’s/Rituals with eight minutes to spare . . . whew!
As I walked into the dance department, Nathan had a young student escort me to my “chair” in the dance studio. A “chair” I say because the chairs were set up in a very non-traditional way: back to back, in a circle, in the center of the room where the audience was actually “in the round” and blue mats (for student types) circumscribed the formation. How intriguing? I’m assuming because I was “press,” I had the luxury of sitting in a folding chair as suppose to a yoga mat on the floor; . . . praise Jesus, because the chronic pain under my shoulder blade in my back from carrying my dance bag was killing me.

Beautiful, easy, neo-soul house music with a Brazilian lounge under-beat played while we waited in anticipation for the show to start. I’ve always appreciated Nathan’s work. I’ve been watching his work over the past ten-plus years and seen it grow since I was a young student at the Ailey school. His work always impressed me: the clarity, the seamless intricate movement vocabulary that forever seems to evolve right before your eyes. Fascinating! So, I was happy to come through to see what Nathan had in store for us this time.

“My intention is to create a series of abstract illustrations that expresses our efforts to convey, find a place for or translate into physical terms an inner knowledge of dispositions, which to some extent looks for confirmation in the outer-world in which we coexist.” –Nathan Trice Program Note

Four rooms, four works, a solo, a duet, a trio, a quintet. The show was set for the audience to travel from room to room in which the audience was split up into four groups to watch four performances simultaneously. Fitting that we were in a high school . . . It kind of reminded me of switching classes when the fifty-minute buzzard rang . . . great idea nonetheless.

First, for my group, was the duet, You & I, performed by Jason Fordham and Hillary Thompson. Again, we, the audience, were in the round. Because our chairs were in the center of a dance studio, we could see out, seeing our reflections in the mirrors around us. We could see behind ourselves too without even turning our heads. Directly in front of me, Jason Fordham got up from his chair and went to the stereo, turned it off, and began to move. Hillary Thompson soon came in to follow. Both wore sneakers to do Nathan’s contemporary modern moves. My first thought was . . ., “Does Ms. Mathisius know that they are dancing on the marley in sneakers?” . . . just kidding. But, no . . . for real . . .

Anywho, I really loved the use of space in You & I, especially the audience configuration in relation to the studio mirrors because we can look away from the dancers and still see all the movement making it even possible to see both one dancer move behind us in relation to the other dancer moving in front of us at the same time. Brilliant. Nathan created a nice movement vocabulary that explored suspended tension soloed and partnered, and I adored how he incorporated the house dance footwork with that “classic Nathan” movement quality that we all know Nathan for. Kudos to Jason and Hillary for execution . . . before seeing the end of the  piece, I picked up some hip hop elements that really worked for me. The rhythms that I saw performed in their bodies made me wonder if this is what contemporary hip hop would look like if done right . . . hmm. I say this because I see a lot of hip hop, perform it, critique it, etc., and I noticed a trend where a lot of hip hop choreographers are “trying” to incorporate unconventional contemporary movement into their choreography and fail miserably. At best, it comes off contrived; little do they know that it is masters like Nathan Trice (who, by the way, has been exploring contemporary movement for the greater portion of his adult life), that can pull this off with any integrity . . . just like hip hoppers circa the studio profit scene, their authenticity pails in comparison to the b-boys that break everyday in the NYC subway tunnels of 42^nd street or on the concrete pavement of Union Square. Thus, to be considered a master, it takes hours of study and exploration of craft (whichever genre it might be) in order to be considered a “true playa.”

O’kay, sorry, . . . super tangent, now back to the duet . . . There was a constant push and pull, a certain tension, or tug of war, that was not completely revealed until the end. When the music stop, the dancers kept going with a choreographed phrase and an uttered verbal yet physical argument about whether to teach a “hip hop and/or street jazz class” as compared to having a class taught to “Arab chanting.” Wow . . . All in all, I love Nathan’s use of his unconventional ideas with unconventional movement and daring to turn a conventional studio on its head to an unconventional performance space. That’s an artist!

We picked up our things and move onto the next room. We walked into the dance studio usually used as a black box theater. The walls and mirrors were covered with black curtains. The chairs were scattered about into the center of the room facing every direction leaving two aisles that crucifixed in the center. As we proceeded to sit, one of the ushers advised us to put all of our belongings under our chairs. We sat in anticipation. . . . Nathan never fails us to bring us a new experience. . . . Three female performers, Claire Tunkle, Jenni Hong, and Shannon Smith worked the room over giving a very strong performance. Nathan had them saying a mouthful of existential thought about “wishful thinking that leads to wishful hope” and “the need to believe” and not one stumbled! There was not a lot of dance in this piece, but it did not matter; it was powerful nonetheless. Once again, because Nathan has an excellent command of the use of space, the blocking patterns performed by the dancers were dope and made up for the lack of dance. The acting was on point and I commend Nathan for challenging the young ladies to act, for twenty minutes no less, to such existential monologues while so closely interacting with the audience.

On to the next room we went . . . we were now in a dance studio in which we as the audience were facing front in a normal proscenium, “fourth wall” configuration. Five dancers busted out into the room with a vengeance. They had total command of Nathan’s music in which the dancers themselves were there own soundtrack! Hot! They sounded AMAZING. Everyone had exceptional breath control. Simple costuming, they really showed their skill as talented dancers. I love how Ryogi Sasamoto went into this bipolar like rage. His arms would wail about, but with pure intent and clarity. His voice stunted, it reminded me of a bad dream in which you are trying to scream and nothing comes out. As an ensemble, I saw some great group work and real mastery of Nathan’s style. Kudos to the dancers for being able to sing and move through his movement vocabulary very efficiently with clarity especially when going from abstraction to seamless table attitudes and backward en dehors turns with legs a la seconde.

But, we were not done yet, for Nathan really knows how to build a piece into a climatic explosion because, all of the sudden, the dancers break and go into a crazy rage like some primal, sub human species similar to the infected humanoids in Will Smith’s movie, “I am Legend.” Yikes! Then, in classic Nathan form, the movement evolved into slow, deliberate movement phrases accompanied by continued stunted chatter similar to what we saw and heard in the beginning — which I gather could mean a sense of lack of human progression, stunted growth, recession, fear, perhaps. Either way, I was succumbed by the beautiful singing of Akiko Morita who was able to lull the dancers and the audience to a place of peace.

Last on my group’s route was Me, “The Solo.” Chairs were randomly set up diagonally with most facing closely to the two walls of mirrors. Nathan casually walked in with all black on and a pair of sneakers and takes a “runners” lunge. I was surprised he was dressed . . . usually he performs half naked . . . Anywho, I could hear in the last room Ryogi go into his convulsions again which made for an excellent soundtrack to Nathan’s solo. Nathan worked the room with interactive improvisations . . . he was crazy . . . such a clown . . . who knew? How fun! He started off real serious; thus, we had no idea what he had planned to do. He interacted with select members of the audience, and, of course, he picks me. OMG! I did not know whether to look at him, look past him, or join in. All I knew was that he was really working my classroom desk I was sitting in as if it was some kind of contemporary dance partner (or pole). With being that close though, I must say, it was great to see his body work for I could see every little limb, every individual finger, and every muscle isolate to great satisfaction . . . so much attention to detail. “Work it pa pa” . . . then, on to my neighboring audience member, he proceeded to improv and got so close and in her face that she started to laugh and Nathan started to laugh, and then we all started to bust out laughing. Live theater for you . . . I don’t know if that was pl anned, but it surely gave the audience great comic relief to all the heady artistry we just witnessed. Nevertheless, Nathan was able to compose himself, jump back into character, go back into his runners lunge, and take us back to the calm he started.

Overall, what a wonderful way to end a hectic evening . . . so, New York. Nathan has evolved into a fixture of the New York artist scene keeping ahead of the curve. Though this work was experimental, I liked the fact it was “all Nathan” with little collaboration, and did not include a copped-out multi-media display. It was simple and soooooooooooo effective. Every room had a different concept: some relied heavy on choreography, some relied heavy on words, and some relied heavy on the strength of a good improv, but either way, it was not boring. And, the dancers, . . . who knew that Nathan had such triple threats in his mitts? The acting was stellar and the singing/breath control was no joke and, on top of that, the dancers in this production really gelled with Nathan’s movement style to a “T.” I loved every minute of it. Kudos to Nathan for being such a renaissance artist. What a great night I had to see dance, theater, and experimental work at its finest!

Studio Photography by Judith Stuart Boroson

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Candice Michelle Franklin
Performance: nathantrice/Rituals project-by-project dance theater
Venue: LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts
Date: Sunday, February 22, 2009, 7pm
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