Stage props from earlier installments of the four-part “Return of the Bird Tribes” collection body the apply ground. On one facet is the cardboard tree from the 2022 program, Numinous Land, and in opposition to the wall, the good golden crown from the 2021 pandemic work, Crown.
For Baker, the RBT collection started with the October 2019 program, Remain in Light. She says that this system shifted her artistic energies.
“It all goes again to Remain in Light, whose theme was the ocean, however at that time, the course had probably not emerged,” says Baker.
“[These four works] are all about pure vitality and about what comes from the bodily world,” she explains. “Crown laid down the geometry of those new prospects for the brand new starting we had been making, then we undergo the totally different bodily representations on earth. First was Operation Birdsong, the place we needed to attend to the issues of the air, after which there was Numinous Land, the place we had been attending to issues of the earth.”
Baker sees her present undertaking, Abracadabra, persevering with that trajectory. For Baker, this newest program — premiering Thursday, November 10 by way of Sunday, November 13 at Miami-Dade County Auditorium’s On.Stage Black Box Theatre — investigates the vitality behind issues.
“The stage will likely be all gold with out embellishment. The concept is to specific a vibration,” says Baker. “We’re turning into conscious of the emergence of energetic values which can be turning into manifest.”
Baker, carrying a loose-fitting shirt and sweater, engages within the interview as she pins in place a golden collar on Barton.
“Abracadabra opens with one in every of my hack films with individuals making gold orbs,” says Baker, referring to her crowd-sourced movies spliced collectively from YouTube films. “And then it transitions to girls from the ’50s making globes after which spiders going ‘spherical and ‘spherical making webs.”
Musician and composer Brian Eno’s subdued 2005 composition “And then so clear” accompanies Baker’s visuals. The piece begins quietly with chords, then an digital voice breaks in, “In these the world to open/a lot to lose to save lots of.”
The three dancers transfer to the middle of the ground, sporting full-body tights and gold collars. Behind them, a tall draped golden determine casts golden shadows on the black studio ground because the dancers middle themselves and Baker cues up the music.
The centerpiece of Abracadabra is a 24-minute dance piece of the identical title set to Eno’s just-released work, “We Let It In.”
The dancers start, and their actions are placing, patterns reworking unexpectedly. In one sequence, Trieger stretches again after which steps to Gonzalez’s facet earlier than pivoting to face him in a lunge as they each hop ahead. Gonzalez helps her in a fast raise in arabesque earlier than they run the size of the ground. To their proper, Barton snaps again in arabesque, hops ahead twice, then spins.
The choreography shifts quickly from the flamboyant to the introspective. In one sequence, dancers leap into the air, arms absolutely prolonged, legs snapping out at proper angles. In one other, dancers waltz as a trio earlier than shrinking right into a sculpture-like twist on the middle.
Throughout the choreography, the three dancers exhibit astonishing unity of approach.
The program additionally features a attractive set of visuals with a movie by Justin Trieger, New World Symphony’s multimedia producer and husband of dancer Amy Trieger, which will likely be projected on the display screen throughout the principle dance quantity.
The movie begins with black and white, digitally produced orbs that float like stars in house after the Big Bang. With a sudden crash, the scene shatters with motion and the colour spectrum shifts to shades of gold.
Near the tip of the dance quantity, three dancers type a diagonal, toes in first place, arms at their sides gently curved, gaze intent.
They increase a hand to their shoulders after which prolong it out in entrance because the music closes.
When I ask how the dancers exhibit such unity of approach, Baker replies: “It comes from coaching in a holistic method — discover that there is no such thing as a one even heavy respiratory,” which is true. “This comes from coaching in a sure method,” says Baker referring to her dance approach, which she calls Lightbody.
“[The technique] sophisticates the nervous system, and the coaching aligns the respiratory with the pure pulse of the nervous system,” she provides.
Each of the dancers has carried out with Wholeproject for a number of seasons. Gonzalez joined the corporate in 2019, and Barton in 2014.
For Amy Trieger — who joined the corporate in 2005 — Abracadabra will likely be her twentieth program danced with the corporate.
When requested what she hopes the viewers will take away from this system, she says, “There are issues about the best way that we work that folks do not perceive as a result of we’re so calm or what seems to be calm. They do not know all of the again work that goes into it. I would like them to sit down there and be there with us as a result of that will open their hearts. Then after that, I might love to sit down there and have a dialog and speak about how we obtained there.”
– Sean Erwin, ArtburstMiami.com
Brigid Baker Wholeproject Abracadabra. 8 p.m., Thursday, November 10, by way of Sunday, November 13, at Miami Dade County Auditorium, 2901 W. Flagler St., Miami; 305-547-5414; miamidadecountyauditorium.org. Tickets price $22 through ticketmaster.com.