Dance Review: Zoe Scofield, Visions of Wild Horses Dancing on Stage

Zoe Scofield did a fab job at DTW with her collaborators including husband (Juniper Shuey), sound engineer (Kamran Sadeghi), her company of five dancers, and the addition of ten local dancers from Barnard College.  The resulting, the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t, presented a baroque-esque performance, a style in which layer after layer of the ideas were revealed on stage, (according to DTW’s Artistic Director, Carla Peterson, in the post performance discussion).  Effectively, the company somehow harnessed movements, that shuddered and broke across the stage, as Zoe’s own personal quirk of her self-professed ‘failed ballerina style’ was successfully translated by the dancers into eye-popping unison phrases for five.  The company’s precision and funk from such young dancers was captivating.

Scenes that worked? The opening included a temple like ritual where a pressing, crackling sound gave way to the image of snow gently falling across the white downstage scrim.  A projection slowly revealed a dancer moving across the stage then gently kneeling.  Behind this wall, Zoe was transformed into that snowy image.  Slowly, Zoe writhed and contorted herself bringing the focus to her arms and the undulations of her back and neck.  Her hands slowly rose up and out into the confined space of a solitary box of light while the left, cracked out and contorted, contrasted the right, serene with fingers touching in meditation.  More light on stage reveals a group of fifteen;  their painted white bodies and draping white tunics all were trapped in simple repetitive movement phrases.  The corps, leaning forward as if to defy gravity, dropped and maintained low second positions crawling forward with quirky ticks and twisting ankle motions.  Through more complex phrases Zoe’s main dancers were delineated.  The four carved their stories through larger, more technical movements within the oppressed and crowded space created within.  This was a world gone a bit mad and slowly, through the use of gradually added costume changes and continual color shifts, the dancers were allowed to escape into their own demonic ‘presencing’.  There were some obvious problems moving the very large corps of local dancers in and out of the space that was a bit distracting, but their overall performance was passable.

The Devil was a dance built with increasing intensity.  Each section added another layer of movement exploration channeled through sweeping sections of unison of the five as if they were tied together at the waist.  This was beautifully contrasted with solos where all of the company expressed their extreme talent and individuality through Zoe’s very specific movement style.  There was no hodgepodge but a definite concept expressed in the well-performed movement of these technically trained and beautifully toned dancers.   A duet stood out as a boy and a girl gently explored the space between each other.   At no time did it really matter that it was a boy and a girl as Zoe subverted the clichés about man and woman.  They were simply two moving souls.  Finally, one dancer was propelled down the stage by their neck as the other rolled them from behind with their feet.  Another pair entered in time with the first as one story melted into the next.

Bravo Zoe and Juniper, as this company, that has only been performing for four years, presented a passionate work of contemporary ballet, fantasy and much much more.  The audience leaped to their feet for a standing ovation!  Please view excerpts of the piece online for yourselves at http://www.dancetheaterworkshop.org/scofield_shuey.

Photo Credit: Justine Avera 

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Review by Sasha Deveaux
Performance:  Zoe Scoefield & Juniper Shuey
Choreographer:  Zoe Scoefield
Venue:  Dance Theater Workshop/DTW, New York City
Date:  February 12, 2009
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