Velocity’s Next Fest NW 2024 provided a thought-provoking glimpse into modern dance and efficiency with the theme, Total Chaos. This 12 months’s iteration invited artists to discover notions of cacophony, dysfunction, and mess, leading to a group of works that had been each chaotic and deeply reflective of the present second. Choreographers Symone Sanz, Hannah Krafcik and Emily Jones, and Artie Thomas aka drag artist Stasia Coup challenged audiences to rethink order, intimacy, and id in a world steeped in turmoil.
Symone Sanz’s WRETCH aimed to deliver the gritty and awkward power of a DIY Seattle home present, closely referencing Seattle’s grunge roots. Musician Benjamin Hunter performed electrical guitar in the course of the area whereas the dancers circled round him. He created a traditional rock soundscape harking back to Jimi Hendrix heightening the sensation of being taken again to a time in Seattle when it was revolutionary to kindly roughhouse with comrades on the dance ground. The dancers, wearing purple tie-dye costumes, moved with an depth that oscillated between athletic drill group precision and chaotic mosh-pit abandon. There was even an educational crowd browsing second the place the dancers requested just a few viewers members to assist carry Sanz across the area like a rock star.
Wrestling matches and yoga-like holds blurred the strains between fight and self-care, revealing a robust feminist subtext of intimacy and belief amongst the group of femme and non-binary presenting performers. Sanz’s work appeared to be about getting ready for all times’s chaos with energy, camaraderie, and resilience.
Krafcik and Jones’s The Swirl was a meditative exploration of partnership and duality impressed by the freefalling embrace of eagles in midair, framed by video projections of absurd hand painted animations. The dancers created intricate spiralling tableaus that evoked geometrical optical illusions and interconnected eagles—a metaphor for danger, intimacy, and connection. The animations by visible artist Ralph Pugay, whimsical and harking back to kids’s ebook creator and artist Shel Silverstein’s drawings, supplied an otherworldly and comedic backdrop that includes renderings of eagles and the dancers themselves.
The efficiency dove head first into the complexity of bodily relationships, presenting the duo not as a binary however as a fluid, interdependent set. Their actions prompt an ongoing negotiation of belief and stress, a meditation on the methods folks match collectively and evolve collectively. Their dance grew to become a narrative of intense bodily contact and shared intention, providing a imaginative and prescient of partnership as a chance to discover the infinite potentialities for discovery when dancing with one other particular person.
Artie Thomas aka drag artist Stasia Coup’s work was a surreal and foolish journey into the early levels of parenthood. Combining drag efficiency and bodily comedy, Thomas delivered to life the chaotic pleasure and nervousness of beginning his parenting journey. The efficiency featured playful but absurd (and typically disgusting) parts—breastfeeding pink balloon udders, stuffed animals crying demanding their soiled diapers be modified (oh sure there was “poop” in these diapers), and the “baby” was a doll dressed as Stasia, full with popstar-high ponytail wig and sun shades. Throughout the doll is handled as each youngster and accent.
The humor was undercut by a way of urgency, reflecting the present political local weather surrounding trans rights. Thomas invited the viewers to think about the anxieties of complicating the cis heteronormative binary of gendered parenting roles. The efficiency captured the energy and humorousness required to keep up hope and assist whereas constructing a queer household in troublesome occasions. The efficiency additionally celebrated the legacy of “mess acts” in drag as a method for revolt, societal critique and private vulnerability, creating an area the place queer and allied audiences may mirror on and snigger concerning the challenges of blood and chosen household constructing.
From the mosh pit power of Sanz’s WRETCH to the eagle impressed complexity of Krafcik and Jones’s The Swirl and the politically charged mess of Coup’s parenting fever dream, every work provided a singular perspective on navigating chaos with care. Together, these performances demonstrated the facility of latest dance and efficiency to disrupt, problem, and encourage us to remain inventive, linked and compassionate as we transfer via these troublesome occasions collectively.
Velocity’s NextFest NW 2024: Total Chaos ran December 6-14 at 12 Ave Arts Studio Theater. Featured picture of Stasia Coup by Jim Coleman.