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SunMi Park and Thomas Forster in Trio Élégiaque. Photo: Steven Pisano. |
Sometimes when I’m watching dance, I wonder why. Why was this work created, and how? What are my expectations, and what will remain with me after I leave the theater? Why did I choose to be there watching? Dance can be a narrative form used to tell a story. But often, contemporary dance is plotless, in which case it should have some purpose. Or must it?
Two dances I saw in New York last week fall into these categories. Trio Élégiaque at ABT by the young corps dancer Brady Farrar comprised duets by three couples along the theme of unrequited love, set to Rachmaninov. The phrases are logical and well crafted, ebbing, flowing and alternating between the dancers coming together or pulling apart. You could feel that each couple had its own dynamic, its own particular situation on the romantic spectrum, and thus a particular vocabulary to express that situation.
These were loosely sketched by Farrar, who tapped certain ballet moves to evoke emotions. Bold jumps and lifts expressed heightened feelings; soft, calm gestures implied contentment, arms tugged in opposite ways meaning tension, and so on, set to Rachmaninov’s bittersweet piano and string composition. In numerous varied sections, the dance conveyed with nuance the joy and sadness of romance. Farrar hewed largely to traditional ballet vocabulary, creating elegant, flowing phrases.
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| B E N D. Photo: Lawrence Sumulong |
Aszure Barton/Ambrose Akinmusire’s A a | a B : B E N D was performed at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater as part of the Pasculano Collaborative for Contemporary Dance. Pretty much everything about the work felt in opposition to classical ballet, although I’d guess that most of the performers in B E N D are fluent in ballet. Nicole Pearce designed the striking set, with pearl strings of lights circling the stage apron and mirrored on the ceiling, as well as the murky lighting. Akinmusire sat on a dais, upstage center, playing the score, augmented by passages of bleating trumpet lines and screams.
And the dance… Barton has her own contemporary style, fluid and lithe, yet precise. She employs the entire group of 13 at once, and together they convey what feels like a weather system, or a murmuration of birds, rather than dance steps. While it is Barton's unique style, I caught flashes of gaga, street dance, and ballet. The black hoodies and loose pants (designed by Rémi van Bochove) erase any individuality, with the exception of a few sections where heads are bared. The overall feeling is menacing, or of the group being menaced, by external forces, banding together in the face of some threat. At moments, the mass pulsed as one, or energy flowed through it like a kelp forest.
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| B E N D. Photo: Lawrence Sumulong |
Both works demand incredible technical skills. Using ballet’s familiar syntax in subtly new ways, Farrar focuses on the poignancy of romance; Barton, with her sui generis vocabulary, on some larger event's impact on the human state. Specific human emotions are conveyed through couples, or via a collective. Dance can speak many languages, and each viewer will absorb it and interpret it differently—but how lucky we are to have such choices.
