Mass Movement Dance Studios, Brighton, MA (considered through livestream).
April 26, 2025.
A night-length work with a powerful prevailing theme and ambiance, or a “combined invoice” of assorted works: I take pleasure in each constructions for what they every should take pleasure in. The latter usually additionally comes with a thread or threads that join the person works: in temper, in perspective, in style. But, generally, not at all times – as with Alive Dance Collective’s SHIFT – such applications provide a notable smorgasbord of works, with none explicit high quality or “strategy” prevailing.
Selection is the spice of life, they are saying. These applications reveal that such a bounty can delight the inventive palette with many alternative flavors to savor. The Boston-based group is actually a part of town’s bounty of smaller-scale, but stalwart dance corporations – persevering with so as to add their very own sugar and spice with every new program.
The memorable up stream, from Alexandria Nunweiler in collaboration with the dancers, opened this system. Nocturnal crickets and ethereal choral singing within the rating (“Choir and Crickets” by David Russo) stuffed the area. Dancers moved low to the bottom, rolling in unbiased timing, then discovered unison gesture as they rose. Within the quiet of mystical night time, one thing gelled. Concentric rotating circles enhanced that sense of cohesion rising. Spines have been fluid and serpentine as they modified relationship with ranges in area and with one another.
A shift in vitality got here with a rating change; their timing quickened to match the music (“Aqueous Transmission” by Incubus). A decrescendo got here after the crescendo, nonetheless, and shortly they once more moved gradual and simple. That cohesion discovered, they collectively moved by this cycle of rising and falling vitality. up stream exemplified work that’s merely viscerally evocative, actually lots to please and intrigue.
Twilight Individuals, danced and choreographed by Shira Weiss: a solo seemingly with deep significance, but additionally abstraction making it obtainable to diverse meanings. Weiss, seated on a plain bench, repeated a gesture whereas voices within the rating rose robust and clear. As an strategy used all through the work, with diverse motion vocabulary at completely different factors, the repetition turned virtually meditative.
Earlier than lengthy, motion grew in dimension, energy and the shapes layered inside it. Weiss learn from a prayer scarf after which donned it over their shoulders, swaying backbone laterally because the tassels rippled. They returned to the bench on the finish. In its devotional, soothingly meditative high quality, it was a refreshingly distinctive work.
Audrey Hatas’ Murmuration continued the candy and soothing choices, with a contact of implied historical past and custom. The dancers got here off quasi balletic, in skirts and with actions reminiscing the classical – but have been additionally barefoot and free in their very own qualities: spines straightforward fairly than absolutely lifted, toes softly expressed fairly than “cashew”-pointed.
Timing and staging introduced comparable qualities: deliberately formed, but not pressured. The life already contained in the clay of the dancers was revealed, as Michelangelo would possibly muse. Within the softening of the classical and the natural, soulful really feel at hand, the work mirrored one thing of Isadora Duncan’s work and ethos.
The following work, Roll, Flip, Toss, Jam by Katrina Conte in collaboration with the dancers, introduced us into the delightfully zany. The duet companions, Brenna Banister and Katherine Berman, dance-partied it out whereas mixing in some conventionally up to date footwork for good measure. Eager kinetic shaping developed as a jazzy voice rose within the rating: reverse facings, canon timing, motion vocabulary shuffled and reassembled. There was enjoyable, but additionally rigor. And so it’s with art-making; we discover the steadiness between the 2 – and, in the end, the ultimate product of our work.
Lila Ruth Klaus’ Rage/Launch got here subsequent, providing softness but additionally vitality and tenacity. Ensemble members gathered into the area with their very own motion, becoming a member of the rising form of posed our bodies. Motion constructed: dancers coming out and in of unison, rising tall after which discovering the ground, gesturing in direction of and away from each other.
Kinetic ease stuffed the stage, but – undergirded by a repeated concord within the rating (“The King” by Anjimile) – agitation resonated by the area. Even so, even with their pace escalating in accordance with the rating and within the face of that sonic turbulence, they embodied ease. The ensemble ended with a unison clap, arms up excessive. They’d stand robust in being the calm amidst an atmosphere attempting to strip them of it.
With gentle acoustic and a wistful voice within the rating, motion a bit extra ethereally balletic, the ambiance was softer with Paige Befeler’s Wildflower – coming simply after intermission. However there was additionally a pathos: spines releasing again after which whipping ahead with a change in course, steps ahead and again evoking uncertainty, gaze clear and emotive. On the identical, the group’s cohesion was clear. No matter they have been dealing with, collectively or individually, they have been by no means alone – and that felt simply as significant.
Alexandria Nunweiler’s Subtly Alice, a dance movie, ushered in a bit extra intriguing abstraction. Montage video interweaved exploration of sunshine and shadow with motion: gesture, bigger physique shapes, easy gaze with moments of stillness. A mysterious and chilling string chord enhanced the thriller within the ether, enigma filling all senses (rating from Agnes Obel).
Accented gesture, repeated again and again, complemented ambient pressure. Arms sliding down a wall evinced a looking amidst the strain and abstraction – maybe discovering grounding and understanding when it appeared in any other case briefly provide. To finish, the digital camera appeared down on a spiraling staircase, a dancer rising from their seat – maybe in search of such decision for themselves.
1519, 1216, choreographed and danced by Katherine Berman, stored alive and effectively the uncertainty of the prior piece – but additionally added one thing extra somber and soulful. On knees, Berman gestured: reaching, looking, built-in and commanding in her motion. Rising, she introduced that search farther out into area. Arms folding reminisced prayer: a devotional high quality to her search. Lastly she rested, seated and searching ahead. Relaxation is, in any case, important for that in search of to proceed.
Much more of that somber soulfulness got here with the subsequent ensemble piece, Marina Villeneuve’s Reflecting Gentle; longing within the motion high quality met the singer’s crooning within the rating (“Reflecting Gentle” from Sam Phillips). That imbued one thing nostalgic, dreamy in reminiscence. Nostalgia can really feel finest in group, which the dancers created by unified motion and a way of unstated connection.
The multifaceted Aleph? Guess., from Brenna Banister in collaboration with the dancers, closed this system. Appropriately sufficient, it introduced in lots of qualities, themes and approaches of previous works. Repeated motion offered one thing meditative. Speech within the rating provided character and humor, which the dancers skillfully made visceral by pantomime and theatricality. Their gestures easily met the timing of speech and chimes within the soundscape (“The Linguist” by Ben Cuba).
It was all summary sufficient that I wasn’t fairly positive what precisely was occurring – other than a imprecise sense of an elder guiding, and generally scolding these of their care, in addition to a common feeling of playfulness. But I used to be delighted nonetheless, no matter precisely may need been taking part in out earlier than us.
What was crystal clear, nonetheless, was a way of particular person character for every persona simultaneous with group unity. These are the perfect occasions with pals: when all really feel a part of a collective, but additionally free to be them. That playfulness, pleasure, and connection was a beautiful be aware on which to finish.
Regardless of the strategy, regardless of the ambiance, regardless of the “vibe”, it can be nice if we’re in it collectively. Thanks and congratulations to Alive Dance Collective for presenting many flavors to take pleasure in, and achieve this in unified group: important, but too usually missing.
By Kathryn Boland of Dance Informa.
