2023 was a hopeful year with more and more live performances to experience. Today I repost about the 7 performances that were highlighted on the blog through previews, reviews, and reflections. Five are of Bay Area based companies and artists; two share about touring companies in town. Huge thanks to the roster of writers, including: Bhumi B Patel, Molly Rose-Williams, and Garth Grimball. All of the articles are hyperlinked below in red. These 7 projects shared rich and meaningful stories and themes.
- Jill Randall, Director of Life as a Modern Dancer
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:: February ::
Reflections on "Water in the Kettle" by MoToR/dance
“Put the water on…Put the water in the kettle…” The performers’ voices swoop around the space, weaving in and out of one another as their bodies rock, walk, slap, and stomp in time to the song. I’m seated on the left side of a large semi-circular audience in a lofty wooden auditorium, immersed in the sounds of this corporeal orchestra. The performers move up and down the aisles, pulsing ever closer to the kettle at the center of the stage like raindrops running along the spokes of a wheel. “Put the water on…Put the water in the kettle…” The words leap from their rhythmic bassline like a request, a demand, a statement of intention, a call to arms. By the time they reach the kettle, my body is electric. - Molly Rose-Williams
Also check out a preview interview with Evie Ladin here.
:: March ::
Drifter with Keith Johnson/Dancers
For this performance with Long Beach based artist Keith Johnson, I published two preview pieces, sharing words from the collaborators and Keith, and a review/reflection of the Bay Area performance by Molly Rose-Williams.
Catch an excerpt from a preview here:
Bahareh Ebrahimzadeh: What I have always loved about Keith's work is that the process is very much a part of the work that is ultimately created. You don't just show up and learn steps. You build together, you contribute, your history matters, and how you approach movement matters. He looks at each body as an individual and weaves their rich history into the work.
:: June ::
Julie Crothers' "Holy Crap:" Blessed is the Skilled Performer
Did I mention Julie Crothers is a magnetic performer? We’re less than 5 minutes into the show, and already the back of my neck is tingling with the excitement and tension of the opposing forces roiling inside me. One one hand: a guttural uneasiness in the face of Crothers’ uncanny transformation into the body and voice of Evangelical America, a culture that represents for me one of the most violent and oppressive forces in modern US society. On the other hand: a yearning to lean closer. And closer. And closer. Crothers-as-minister is honey-warm; her presence is utterly compelling.
- Molly Rose-Williams
:: September ::
Containing Multitudes: Reflections on Megan Lowe Dances' Gathering Pieces of a Peace
As the lights dimmed and the performance began, the dancers, Clarissa Rivera Dyas, Malia Hatico-Byrne, Melissa Lewis Wong, and Megan Lowe, appeared in pools of light of different colors and textures. Each pool its own portal to the stories we were to follow each dancer through. As the performance continued, we were met with stories of gardens and tattoos, mahjong games and grandparents, wood carvings and tropical fruit, all telling the stories of how, as one of the song lyrics reminds us, our bodies are an archive. And no matter how fragmented that archive may be, that archive is a place where we can understand where and how we belong. - Bhumi B Patel
:: October ::
"The Spaces Between:" A Preview with Collaborators (Nina Haft & Company)
Nina Haft: Improvisation is like life - we are purposeful and not planful about most of our daily choices. These choices add up to a day, a life. Improvisational performance gives performers agency, and brings collaboration into new territory. It really doesn’t work (for audiences or artists) without tapping into some kind of hive mind.
:: November ::
Rogelio Lopez Dreams Big
Rogelio Lopez & Dancers remounted Entre Despierto y Dormido (premiere 2022) at the Joe Goode Annex, and thank goddess for it. The evening-length work is an excavation of Lopez’s subconscious and identity formation as a queer, Mexican immigrant via dreams. Unlike many modern dance performances that are couched in personal narratives, Entre Despierto y Dormido is so thoughtful, so considered, and so grounded in theatricality. This show is not a dancer noodling onstage as a therapy session; it is specific and well-constructed dance theater. - Garth Grimball
:: December ::
"Jungle Book Reimagined is of the Headlines (Akram Khan)
Akram Khan’s “Jungle Book Reimagined” begins in catastrophe. A voice-over announces a litany of contemporary headlines taken to extremes: London is unlivable due to sea level rising; rationing, displacement and economic collapse are the new reality.
Presented at Stanford University’s Memorial Auditorium on December 2-3, this production uses Rudyard Kipling’s narrative to choreograph the story of a refugee, a girl named Mowgli, lost from her family in a storm and taken in by the surviving animals. Animals who are confronting their own traumas of human experimentation, zoos and guns. - Garth Grimball
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