Guta Hedewig Dance premiers "Dog Days" at The Yard.
Photos by Betsy Corsiglia
Digby Dance "No Such Thing" used music by Pink Floyd.
"Dog Days," a work in progress by choreographer Guta Hedewig.
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Dance: Abstract art in motion
September 29, 2005
By Julian Wise
Forget reality TV shows like Survivor or American Idol. The real competition is found at The Yard in Chilmark, where 120 choreographers apply for two slots at the Company Residencies. The winners receive four weeks of studio space and housing, video and photo shoots of their original work, plus a one-on-one session with a professional dance critic who gives specific feedback on their technique. This fall's Company Premieres performances performed last weekend presented cutting-edge dance that combined immaculate technique with lacerating political and social insight.
German choreographer Guta Hedewig's "Dog Days" was a 33-minute opus of political theater and installation art. Located in a sparse stage set punctuated by red props (door, table, phone, TV set), the piece featured four dancers (Theresa Duhon, Guta Hedewig, Rachel Lynch-John, and Kristi Spessard) performing interpretive vignettes to malapropisms by George W. Bush projected against a screen. The four dancers began with a cryptic motion, crouched over as they pushed folding chairs across the floor with their foreheads. Next, the dancers struggled for primacy, standing atop folding chairs while furious violin notes by Vivaldi buzzed and swelled. The scene played like a visual vignette from a Jacques Tati film.
Dancer Kristi Spessard demonstrated remarkable comic talent as she impersonated male bravado (and indirectly, the President's unilateral swagger) in a mimed phone conversation on the red telephone. Her visibly pregnant form and spectral face gave dimension to her fusion of dance and silent screen theatrics, suggesting a female version of Buster Keaton.
In an abstract moment, one dancer shuffled and hobbled in circles with a tissue box stuck to one foot. Other dancers remained pinned under folding chairs. This gave way to a gorgeous interlude of playful, ballet-inspired modern dance where two dancers wove and spun around each other like swallows in the sky. The final scene depicted two dancers seated cross-legged in a yoga-like pose, with one behind the other. The dancer in back reached forward to pull at the face of the other, tugging it into rubbery contortions. Like the rest of the piece, the gesture was cryptic, visually arresting, and surprisingly affecting.
"No Such Thing," by choreographer Kate Digby, began with a frantic blend of sound and motion as five young, attractive dancers tumbled onto the stage and began a series of frenetic motions that suggested a bizarre fusion of freeform dance and aerobics. As the pulsing beats of the Scissors Sisters' disco cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" swelled, the dancers plunged into gung-ho, pump-it-up mania. They kicked, swam, rolled, and cycled across the stage to chants of "Go! Go! Go!" The scene suggested an amplified version of a Gap commercial, and several minutes later the five dragged themselves limp and wrung out to the wall to recover. The dancers then began striking a series of glam-seductive poses while a narrator shouted from the audience "What is your life plan? Where are you going? What do you want?" The dancers then began shaking their heads like malfunctioning androids before quivering, spinning, and collapsing to the floor. The male dancers Ivan Korn and Zack Winokur demonstrated pouty male model looks reminiscent of Derek Zoolander, while female dancers Maggie Husak, Kimberly Miller, and Erin Gottwald flashed an insouciant sensuality. The five began a series of powerful, frantic movements, striking the floor and bouncing up into spins and fluttering steps. The piece ended with some of the dancers collapsed into the arms of the others, relying on the support of the others to keep them from striking the ground. The piece invited reflection on the pace of competition infusing contemporary society at all levels, from children's sports to corporate culture. It made a fitting close to the Yard's 2005 season by being dynamic, visually striking, and ultimately provocative.
Julian Wise, a teaching assistant at the Oak Bluffs School, is a frequent contributor to The Times, specializing in music, film, and performing arts.
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