Company SBB // Stefanie Batten Bland

I used to be ready for Company SBB // Stefanie Batten Bland’s Look Who’s Coming to Dinner to begin (the New York City-based firm touring in Boston). Per traditional once I soak up reveals to overview, I assembled my supplies to take notes, browsed this system and eyed the stage area. Not fairly per traditional, one of many ensemble members sat subsequent to me and began chatting with me. 

She was jovial and genuine, but I additionally chuckled to myself to suppose that her work of performing was beginning; more than likely, she was executing an improvisational ”script” of interacting with viewers members earlier than the home lights got here down and the motion on stage began. (I noticed her do the identical with different viewers members after we briefly talked, and fellow ensemble members additionally chat with viewers members.)

Just moments later, she was shifting below the stage lights (lighting design by Yuki Link, tailored from Clifton Taylor) – the proscenium area imbuing her with a brand new type of presence, one of many persona of this work and never of herself. As did the efficiency general, this growth had my thoughts whirring — on questions of transformation, of human interplay, of the roles we play, of questioning the very nature of issues as we’ve been advised they’re.  

That opening second felt like way over a second; the ambiance took its time to construct (technical path from Emma Rivera). The performers stood in tableau, evenly spaced throughout the downstage – order and predictability permeating. Dancers started to maneuver – in flip – and thus deconstruct that order and predictability, nevertheless. Posing once more, they shifted again into that sense of static order. 

The rigidity between opposites, the shifting between these poles, and the unpredictability of the place alongside that spectrum what was transpiring earlier than us would land: that was all rising right here, like greens sprouting out of newly-thawed spring earth. It would develop ever clearer and extra poignant. Soon, dancers started shifting with extra measurement, velocity, and technical virtuosity – but an understated ambiance continued to permeate. 

Even on this first “dancey” part of the work, Batten Bland’s Gaga roots had been clear — layers to peel again and savor, but nothing superfluous, nothing to bitter by being ostentatious. Soon, the motion returned to one thing extra quotidian: dancers establishing tables and laying tablecloths over them (set up additionally by Batten Bland), whereas audio spoke of making ready for dinner friends (music by Paul Damian Hogan). These actions infused a way of the standard and the acquainted — qualities that will even be deconstructed earlier than lengthy. 

Indeed, a visitor arriving added turbulence to the social order within the area – as we are able to acknowledge in our personal lives, the air altering in a social area with the ingredient of somebody new getting into. That all occurred with out a phrase, as probably the most deliberately crafted dance artwork can obtain: that conveying of unstated feeling with the physique and ambiance alone. 

Also placing to me, proper from this early a part of the work, was the seamlessness of transitions – even when exhibiting clear constrast, even with the accent inevitable in transition itself, the boundaries between these qualitative shifts had been comfortable. That’s how they’re in life, in spite of everything; there’s no “ta da, we’re here now” – fairly, one second follows one other at the same time as modifications may rock the earth beneath us. 

One transition, into an ensemble member performing like fairly the “macho man” — starting to do pushups, pose like a physique builder and shadow-box – did jar me. Yet, it quickly sufficient occurred to me that such an unsettled feeling, of encountering one thing surprising, was possible intentional. The identical went for extra aggressive physicality between the personas on stage, agitated vocalizations including extra sensory colour. 

Something sweeter crammed the air once more quickly, nevertheless, these vocalizations turning into laughter. My thoughts may chew on layers of risk right here: for instance, the agitation being the unstated unresolved issues between us, the unstated anxieties and hurts, and the laughter being the social masks we placed on? An analogous second transpired later: pleasantries exchanged face-to-face however anger and insults expressed behind closed doorways. 

That fodder for psychological chewing may be one of the thrilling components of works like this one. There was lots on provide for the senses to chew on, as nicely — the ensemble pounding rhythms on the desk, Hogan’s layered and mercurial rating, Batten Bland’s motion vocabulary oozing out of clear type into new clear type. 

Most of this remained summary, but truthful interactions between performers provided entry factors of relatability. Certain parts additionally grounded the motion in narrative: the chirping of crickets and the lights dimming to indicate evening falling, for instance. Cultural touchpoints, reminiscent of one performer singing a model of Aretha Franklin’s “R.E.S.P.E.C.T” with lyrics modified to debate COVID-related issues (the CDC and vaccines, for instance). 

With such unpredictable shifts in high quality, and mysteriously summary interactions, these had been factors which we within the viewers may attain for simply as rock climbers latch unto safe items of rock. Those unpredictable parts continued with the tables flipped on their aspect and one of many performers easily, athletically dancing over and round it. It appeared that clear kinetic integration, mixed with environment friendly use of pure energy, propelled moments of defying gravity right here. 

In the bigger scope of the work, this alternative was extra pushing us to query our assumptions. It as soon as once more flipped our expectations – figuratively and, with tables turned on their sides, arguably actually. In this occasion, and in others when dancers positioned the tables in unconventional methods, the area reworked simply because the dancers continued to rework – as they moved by totally different kinesthetic and social/emotional states, various methods of being. 

More little vignettes of interplay transpired, presenting these various states of being. These sections had been significantly stuffed with Batten Bland’s wealthy, but understated motion vocabulary and her dancers’ commanding execution of it: each grounded and increasing, each comfortable and kinetically powered. If any given viewers member may discover it difficult to hook up with any of the avant garde parts at hand, this motion may provide greater than sufficient to fulfill.  

The emotional fact at hand was additionally one thing any viewers member may entry. Poignantly, because the work drew in direction of an in depth, one ensemble member discovered calm by an embrace from – and calm of – one other ensemble member. This illustrated co-regulation, how we are able to discover calm by each other, in a extra visceral and embodied approach than I’ve but seen it illustrated. 

Storms return, nevertheless, as a result of that’s simply actuality; a couple of ensuing sections introduced extra of that frenetic, unsettled high quality. The level just isn’t avoiding these storms, however discovering clear skies once more. And that the performers did, or no less than a few of them; a memorably easeful and built-in solo adopted these extra agitated sections. In distinction, it evoked concord. 

Tender gestures introduced this sense of interior concord to one in all interpersonal peace. Soon after that, the ensemble gathered all collectively upstage because the lights lowered, holding arms. As I skilled that second, I assumed that a lot was attainable from there – as if merely awed by the immensity of all of that multiplicity, and it absolutely occupying my psychological area. 

Reflecting now, as I write this, what feels most salient to me is that sense of connection and care – arguably, the purpose of all of that exploring totally different states of being and provocating our preconceptions (in any other case, why ought to it actually matter, however to work towards one of the best methods to take care of each other and ourselves?). 

In a brief post-show handle, Batten Bland attested to feeling “hugged” by these the corporate labored with in Boston for his or her brief time within the metropolis. That strengthened the bigger thought of neighborhood take care of me. Thank you, Company SBB // Stefanie Batten Bland, for a piece that hugged even because it – at instances – challenged and unsettled. Whoever involves our dinner desk, could we welcome them and nurture them in related methods. 

By Kathryn Boland of Dance Informa.