Dance Review: This week at DNA, OB-ject – ob-JECT

As part of the Winter 2009 Season at Dance New Amsterdam (DNA), three very different female choreographers delivered performances which I haven’t stopped thinking about.  All three of them created choreography which is difficult to describe in dance terms.  This is not necessarily a bad thing because each of them made dances using different kinds of mediums in order to create a multi-sensory experience.

The best way to describe the dance style that was used for the performance is post-modern dance.  A very general term, post modern dance includes any dancing that has taken traditional modern dance and recreated it to fit a choreographers own style.  It can also refer to a specific technique called release technique.  Release technique can be difficult for a classically trained dancer to understand because it is contrary to ballet technique.  Instead of trying to appear as weightless as possible, almost as if you are flying, the goal of release technique is to feel weighted into the ground so that you can release your muscles and weight into the movement.

The first piece, Me and Not Me choreographed by Tami Stronach, was my favorite dance of the night.  The dancers movements were weighted to the ground and they each sustained a circular momentum throughout the entire piece which appeared to flow from one phrase to the next seamlessly.

Ms Stronach used various senses such as sound and smell in her work which I felt were really effective.  Bouquets of flowers around the stage and petals of flowers were scattered on the floor creating an illusion of a garden.  The two dancers, Tami Stronach and Lindsey Dietz Marchant were both dynamic performers and appeared to be the same woman, one of them being the woman’s public self while the other personified her private self.  The two dancers looked great together. Their lines were symmetrical which complimented each other’s movements.  Both dancers took off their shirts towards the beginning of the dance which did not appear at all as un-tasteful.  The reason for taking off their shirts added to the theme of the piece which was an examination of our private and public self.

A highlight of the piece was when one of the dancers stood behind the other and their arms were interlinked doing various tasks such as adjusting the first dancer’s shirt or picking up a flower.  The interlinking of arms made it difficult to see whose arms belonged to which dancer.  Ms. Stronach’s messages were powerful which included the difference between one’s public and private self, what we reveal to others about ourselves, and what remains hidden.  This piece also raised questions on how we define beauty.

Jimena Paz created the second piece called Empty Lot.  The dance began with the four dancers, Donna Costello, Elena Demyanenko, Meredith Fages and Jimena Paz wearing winter coats and hats and all of them wore the same shiny black boots. Ms. Paz broke her dance into four sections or acts as she refers to them in the program.  The dancers were all excellent actresses as well as dancers which created a very dramatic dance.  In addition to the performance feeling more like a play than a dance, Paz used images on an overhead projector and had all four of the dancers change costumes several times throughout the piece.

During the second act, the dancers wrapped themselves in a type of translucent wax paper in which they used to roll on the ground giving the appearance that they were dealing with internal struggles.  Throughout the piece, all four performers were searching for a girl named Sara.  They would occasionally shout out to the audience, “Where is Sara?” and then begin to look for her by opening different doors.  During two different times in the performance, two of the dancers would ask the audience if they wanted a shoe shine.  This was an interesting choice because it brought the audience into the drama unfolding on stage.

For me, the ending pose of Empty Lot was the most powerful moment of the entire piece.  The lighting created a spectacular shadow on the dancers as they all made their way towards the mirrors on stage right.  The dancers are all wrapped in the translucent wax material and they are looking at themselves in the mirror.  The piece ends with one of the dancers turning around and facing the others.  I felt that parts of this performance were moving and I appreciate Ms. Paz’s attempt to create a type of dance drama that was uniquely her own.

The last piece of the night, Things are Recall; Ohio is in the Midwest by Rachel Mckinstry and performed by Rachel Mckinstry and Kendra Portier, left me with a lot of unanswered questions.  The dancers wore matching glittery gold show girl dresses, and I am unclear why they chose these dresses for such a somber dance.  The piece appeared very personal and introspective to each dancer.  The dancers would take turns sitting in a chair and watching as the other dancer would perform.  Their movements included different types of lunges and sweeping arm movements. The music was a range of high energy dance hall music and sounds which took on a more solemn tone. The dancers both created their own individual personality for themselves, but I was left wishing that I had seen more of an interaction between the two.

The three pieces each had their own identity but there was a strong connection between them as well.  All attempted to portray the dancers’ inner feelings and private life to the audience’s attention. How do you show someone’s memories and thoughts in a non-verbal way?  All three choreographers attempt this challenge, and I think they were successful.

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Amanda Keller
Performance:  OB-ject — ob-JECT
Choreographer(s):  Tami Stronach, Jimena Paz/ XYZeta Projects, Rachel McKinstry/Launch Movement Experiment
Venue:  DNA -Dance New Amsterdam, New York City
Date:  Thursday February 26^th, 2009, 8PM
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