I’m having a hard time coming up with anything to say about this evening’s performance by Alonzo King’s Lines Contemporary Ballet Company at the Ferst Center. It was definitely enjoyable, with some spectacular dancing and some very interesting aesthetics, but nothing really stuck with me. I came away impressed but hungry for something a little more.
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Hillel tells us that, when presenting a dance performance, the dancers should already be on stage when the audience arrives. He explains that only Hashem can interpret the world because only Hashem can see the entirety of the world to give it context and meaning. In a similar fashion, only the audience can interpret a work and give it meaning because only they have the outside perspective to do so. Since nobody in the world can hide from Hashem, neither should the dancer hide from the audience.
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I only occasionally stay for artist talk-backs after any kind of performance. I particularly prefer to avoid them for dance. However, I ended up staying to hear Noa Wertheim, Vertigo Dance Company’s founder, artistic director, and the choreographer of this evening’s work, talk after the show at the Rialto Center for the Arts. I did so mainly because I was curious as to what the name of the piece was and if it meant anything. I didn’t know the name of the piece because the Rialto didn’t give us any program notes. There were a few mentions of her other works in the program but nothing about this one. This would be surprising if this weren’t the Rialto, a venue that doesn’t respond to email from subscribers and couldn’t start a show on time if they tried.
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I apologize to everyone between Emory and my place in Virginia Highland: I should not have driven home right away after the performance that I attended tonight at the Schwartz Center Dance Studio that was part of the Exposed festival of dance and theater from Israel. I was stifling sobs by the end of “Come Jump With Me” by Yossi Berg & Oded Graf Dance Theatre, I was so moved by this duo’s work, performed by Yossi Berg and Olivia Court Mesa, about the social and emotional pains of life in Israel. I broke out in tears again on the brief drive home and am shaken to the point that all I can do is sit down and write about my experience. My apologies to my future self for not being able to go into more detail about the piece, but hopefully I’ll have enough to remember what touched me most.
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I originally dismissed {stairs}, a dance piece by MaryGrace Phillips, simply because it was to be staged at the B Complex, which has a concrete floor. I really feel that we should all avoid patronizing artists and organizations that produce dance works on hard surfaces: it’s terrible for the dancers but, even if they’ve managed to receive that rare education on dance safety, they often are not in a position to turn down the opportunity. Earlier this week, however, I realized that she is a Work Room resident and, thus, would almost definitely have access to the Lucky Penny’s portable dance floor and so I felt much more comfortable attending. I really wish that an organization would form around the issue of dancer safety that can certify performances as meeting basic safety criteria: I’d feel a lot better about going to alternative venue performances if such a thing existed.
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Zombified from a nasty bout of insomnia last night and smelling a bit more like dramatically burned popcorn than I’d have liked, I went to see Blake Beckham’s “One Another” at the Mary Gray Munroe Theater at Emory University. It was a strong piece with well developed choreography. I regret that a scheduling conflict kept me from going last night when I’d have been more alert and able to enjoy the piece more because I feel like there was a richness of depth to the piece into which I could only hang my feet but into which I would have loved to have had the chance to dive.
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I concluded my experience of the Atlanta Fringe Festival this afternoon with Roots Dance Project‘s “7 Deadly Sins.” I enjoyed their show last year and I have to say that it was my favorite show that I saw at the festival this year. Roots is a contemporary ballet company formed for the festival and made up of dancers from a variety of companies in a variety of cities. This program, as the title implies, was made up of pieces that each took as their respective themes one of the seven cardinal sins from Christian theology.
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