Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA.
June 22, 2023.
(Viewed through Vimeo at a later date.)
Part of me has at all times questioned the time period “visual art” – aren’t a number of different artwork kinds visible, dance and past? The shared visible nature of dance and “visual art” do, nonetheless, give them a synchronicity that artists of each kinds can name upon to create one thing distinctive and resonant.
That’s precisely what Boston-based Continuum Dance Project did with Fernadina Chan and Adriane Brayton’s Not Eye, Us – and the outcome spoke to one thing profound within the human story and human expertise. It dove deep into the stress between the person and the collective, and that the previous wants the latter to thrive. The work’s aesthetic cohesion additionally gave it the potential to be memorable even with out notion of such that means. The firm created the work by way of the Boston Dancemakers Residency on the Boston Center for the Arts.
The work started with the cue of a knock on a pair of closed doorways. Brayton then opened the door and allowed viewers members into the efficiency house. There, we noticed a solitary dancer dealing with a big sculpture (by Michael Alfano). It seemed to be manufactured from a number of massive blocks, all in numerous pores and skin tones and collectively making up a face. Like the mythological Janus, it had a face in back and front – but on this design, one face was inverted (chin above nostril).
This sculpture definitely introduced one thing summary and mysterious to the house, an environment to which the low, repetitive tones within the rating contributed. That one dancer began to slowly transfer – intentional, absorbed in every kinetic nuance – till she rose to her ft.
Audience members have been gathered round, providing potential for true immersion within the motion to come back – and, starting to place that potential to fruition, ensemble members guided these within the viewers to type a crowd across the sculpture. Wearing easy flesh-toned leotards and easy slacks (costume design by Soyoung L Kim), they weaved by way of and round this crowd.
More ensemble members entered, and started transferring across the sculpture, even touching it – infusing a way of exploration. I felt my curiosity peak; I wished to the touch the sculpture, too, to really feel its texture. Before I may take into consideration that an excessive amount of, the dancers started to deconstruct the sculpture — block by block, carrying every with goal and care. Their gradual pace was putting, even refreshing, in right now’s world.
They then assembled the items right into a circle, and the highlight fell on a number of memorable sections of sooner and extra dynamic motion. The work took its time to construct that pace, dimension and depth, and that’s to the nice. No have to rush to something; there’s sufficient of that on this world, I believed.
The sculpture items additionally performed their half, changing into like dance companions: the performers moved on, over, and round them, typically permitting them to help weight and at different occasions totally supporting their personal weight. It was by no means virtuosity for virtuosity’s sake, however to construct environment and to share the fantastic thing about the transferring physique – and by no means in a approach that felt rushed or pressured.
They tried on completely different prospects with the sculpture items along side the rating – changing into playful with the joyful trills of a flute at one level. With these prospects enjoying out, numerous conditions have been evolving inside a group, in their very own flip – every with their very own tone and environment. I believed again to the face of the sculpture with the varied pores and skin tones — the numerous making up a complete.
In a memorable duet midway by way of, Lonnie Stanton and Adriane Brayton got here collectively and aside in house, hardened and softened to one another’s weight. They created a sense of connection between them, but a tense one. What is desired may also repel – a relatable expertise for a lot of within the viewers, I daresay. A following part had two different dancers becoming a member of them, masking their eyes at occasions and at others trying proper as much as the sunshine, to the heavens. Sometimes we search to see, to grasp and at different factors, we merely can’t.
While they have been gliding clockwise collectively, in a circle round a number of of these sculpture items, I additionally mirrored on the timeless human expertise of being joined collectively in motion – whether or not it’s in “dancing” as we would outline it or in another goal. The circle goes deep in human historical past — as an emulation of the star in our sky, and a want for success within the mild that brings security and all sustenance.
With about quarter-hour left, with pace and depth at (least near) a climax, the ensemble started reconstructing the sculpture. Light arose (lighting design and technical route from Anne Dresbach) on a soloist, Sarah Pacheco, as if the solar had arisen and he or she was the primary to take pleasure in its glow. Yet, similar to how the solar rises and units, night time results in a brand new day, the dancers started deconstruct the sculpture to assemble one other circle. Cycles proceed.
Certain viewers members would have interaction on this cycle, as nicely. An ensemble member led one viewers member to face on one of many blocks (which, as a very good sport, this particular person appeared to welcome). The ensemble concurrently made a circle of chairs during which different viewers members may sit. In the circle of humanity, for higher or worse, none of us ever actually will get to be completely passive.
The ensemble glided across the circle once more because the lights got here down to finish the work. The human story, during which we wake to the golden ball of fireplace within the sky and do our greatest as people dancing in continuity with different people, endures. That there may have been a effective ending, however lights got here up on some viewers members sitting within the circle on prime of the sculpture items – with ensemble members guiding them in easy, but richly textured motion.
Ensemble members arose from their seats to hitch sure viewers members in constructing one other little sculpture, a mini reproduction of the unique bigger sculpture, on a stool within the heart. Together, we construct this assortment that’s humanity. The motion right here felt like two separate endings, each priceless in context with the themes that the work constructed. That second ending additionally managed to discover a contemporary tackle the widespread “full circle ending”, which might be highly effective but in addition really feel overdone.
The work general was equally creative and contemporary, but in addition grounded in one thing a lot older and extra elemental within the human story. Whichever “eye” by way of which we see, it’s “us” and never “I” ultimately. No one can exist in whole isolation, at the least not their fullest lives for very lengthy. Through cogently calling upon visible artwork along side motion, and plenty of extra considerate inventive selections and components, Continuum Dance Project provided a poignant reminder of those primary, but resonant truths. We go ahead, many “I”s collectively as one “us”.
By Kathryn Boland of Dance Informa.
