The Strand Ballroom and Theater, Windfall, RI.
June 29, 2025.
There’s simply one thing about the way in which music and motion come collectively: a form assembly the tone of a be aware, an accent hitting a rhythm simply so, a limb extending as a chord resonates. Revolve Dance Venture focuses on exploring this intersection.
The corporate’s fourth annual program, Sound in Type, demonstrated a deepening and refining of that connection. The included works conferred diverse atmospheres and approaches, sure, but every breathed with that particular concord of sound and movement assembly…sound in type certainly! The magic of music and motion respiratory collectively didn’t cease flowing from the stage and gracing us within the viewers.
This system opened with Danielle Diniz’s vibrant and attractive Revolutions, with music composition from Anthony Hervey. Fast steps aligned with jazzy drum beats. The motion was fairly balletic in type, but additionally oozed with sass and panache: rolling hips, certain footwork, sly smiles accompanying fast turns. The work thus felt akin with Balanchine works that additionally explored this territory.
Simply as Balanchine additionally did, Diniz constructed spacing and construction to work nicely with this being a trio (danced by Kailee Felix, Kirsten MacIntosh and Katie Vigly). Total, after only some minutes, it had me feeling viscerally reminded of how magical live performance dance could be — when the alchemy of music, motion and design gel simply so. The work additionally epitomized quick and candy, slightly nugget that supplied a complete feast of vibrancy and kinetic power.
Luis Ocaranza’s Not So Apparent Love, with rating from Katie Martucci, maintained that scrumptious alchemy. Aram Hengen, with each fluid and impassioned power to his motion, embodied the texture of the rating: jazzy rock with only a contact of indie cool. Kailee Felix joined him for a pas de deux soothing in its ease, the connection between them fantastically unforced. Felix, for her half, was delicate but tenacious within the textures of every rely and step. It was one other delectable chunk of, sure, sound in type.
Lauren Lovette’s Bones/Phalanges introduced one other wealthy and significant pas de deux, however of a brand new tone: dogged, fiery, assertive. Cameron MacIntosh’s pounding drum beats (rating composed by MacIntosh and Daniel Hass) met the dancers’ lightning accents. Duet companions Kirsten MacIntosh and Ocaranza got here collectively and aside, magnets attracting and repelling. MacIntosh had a beautiful method of letting her size by means of shifting form and line do its work – nothing in any respect to show.
A bit extra thriller, even angst, got here into the ether with lights dimming and bodily power easing. But, their ferocity remained. The companions, as personae, additionally appeared to search out extra transferring concord – true tangible connection – because the work progressed into an in depth. That felt like fairly a satisfying approach to finish their wordless story.
Jeffrey Cirio’s She Who Sinks was an enigmatic, and equally compelling, solo danced by Katie Vigly. Her aqueous backbone and elusive gestures traversed the rating’s tones and textures (rating composed and performed stay by Josh Knowles) – and her theatricality was simply as masterful.
The abstraction at handcrafted it such that I wasn’t fairly certain of the precise nature nor supply of her pathos – but it felt sincere sufficient to have me absolutely invested. The thriller of all of it, in addition to its pure energetic and visible magnificence, pulled me proper in. Vigly ended the work in the identical angular and unconventional form she began; the pathos and enigma cycle, simply as all issues do.
Emily Adams’ Previous Lives, with rating additionally composed by Knowles, introduced us again to a softer, extra contemplative ambiance. The motion high quality was languid and unhurried, gorgeously so, even when the pace escalated. As in prior works, the respective textures of the rating and motion harmoniously met, easily folding like stirred batter. Notes melted simply as spines did, form to form.
The work was functionally a duet, but a couple of completely different ballerinas partnered Joe Lynch – thus creating a couple of varied pairings, every with its personal specific really feel and taste. These comings and goings felt fluid and pure, simply because it ideally is when folks inevitably come and go from our lives.
Dara Capley’s Bandage and a Wound introduced one thing with a contact of narrative, but additionally alluring abstraction; there was simply sufficient theatrical readability to maintain me guessing and wanting extra. It started with Vigly’s persona organising a desk, eliciting cheers from the viewers when she completed the job (how heartwarming!). She started transferring, gestures emanating feeling – the stay singer’s voice doing that simply as a lot (rating by Katie Martucci). As soon as once more, I didn’t know the place her pathos got here from, however I believed it – as a result of it was sincere.
The work moved into varied solos, duets and ensemble sections: a construction that embodied connections and disconnections, the person but additionally shared joys and sorrows, inside a group. Later, they settled right into a tableau again across the desk, gestures to one another assured but additionally caring.
Additional group sections of heightened power, with the identical contemporary shaping of motion and stirring efficiency, continued from there. The work possible might have ended across the desk and felt full – but what occurred after that was pleasing sufficient that I had no complaints…damaging complaints, actually.
Laine Habony’s extremely evocative Weight of the World, with rating composed by Katie Jenkins, acquired us again to duets. This one had a temper simply as distinctive as these of prior works, with purple and black costuming, in addition to minor chords within the music bringing a subtly chilling really feel. But the duet companions shared a tenderness that warmed the nippiness. Motion was largely balletic, with a sure bravado and stateliness. Their particular person qualities got here collectively cohesively to create that feeling, simply as all aesthetic flavors within the work did.
Kurt Douglas’ invigorating Runner’s Excessive, one other bigger group work, closed this system. It additionally had a contact of pleasant quirkiness, comparable to with purple socks juxtaposing white costumes. Partnering blended and melded with jazzy beats within the rating (by Daniel Hass). Speedy motion shifted into a lot slower phrasing, providing an interesting rhythmic variance.
The slower shapes mirrored these of a runner – slight lunge, elbows bent with one ahead of the opposite – and the tempo variance how runners deliberately quicken and gradual their tempo as they prepare. As with this system total, creative shaping and pathways of motion saved me locked into the onstage motion.
Much more importantly, one might argue, joyful power simply burst from the stage. That pleasure and brightness remained even because the ensemble’s pace and bodily energy softened. They returned to these runners’ shapes because the lights went down: the runner slowing their tempo as they strategy their quiet down, all issues certainly having their cycles.
All of it made me need to see much more ensemble works from these artists, ought to pesky practicalities (financing, scheduling, logistics) permit for it; I’d like to see what their distinctive voices and strengths might additional convey to it. Regardless, I’ve full religion that they’ll proceed fusing sound and motion collectively in magical, memorable methods – and I eagerly await what new presents of their creation Revolve Dance Venture will current subsequent.
By Kathryn Boland of Dance Informa.
