Through the Sands of Time: Austinist Reviews Spank Dance
We gotta say, Ellen Bartel has gusto. (She named her company Spank Dance – if that’s any indication.) True to form, in her latest piece, Greyhounds and Other Virtual Ways to Travel, she takes a huge concept – in this case, the future of humanity – and presents it to us in a form that’s innovative, contemporary, rough, slow, boring, exciting, tame, beautiful, banal, moving, ridiculous, and most things in between. As is common for Bartell productions, the best and worst thing about Greyhounds is its inconsistency.
The piece is broken down into three sections: Past, a world of dreams; Present, a world of technology; and Future, a world of our imagination. Common themes resurface throughout the piece, but because the sections are so stylistically different, they each deserve to be addressed individually.
Past
Usually, when someone tells us that a piece is “challenging”, in our heads we translate that to mean “boring”. But in this first section the piece’s languid pace managed to tease us along just enough, daring us to stick with it by promising big payoff – and payoff it did.
Bartel’s choreography was by far the most original we’d ever seen it. The dark, twisting movement of the dancers turned performance art into beautifully macabre, powerful stage pictures that demanded the audience’s attention. This surreal exploration was aided by the funky costumes that looked liked something in between 90s-era Courtney Love and traditional women’s wear from days of yore – perfectly placed for the tone of the piece. And lastly, while all the performers seemed to take particularly well to this style of movement, Kayo Tsujimoto was a standout – giving a technically accomplished, emotionally connected, and utterly watchable performance.
So, even though we almost got bored once or twice, this was definitely our favorite part of the evening.
Present
This section was slightly less exciting, relying more on tried-and-true choreography – artistically safer movement that’s been commonplace in modern dance for some time. Costuming, music selection and performance all followed suit. But although Bartel’s choices in this section were, relatively speaking, significantly more obvious than those in Past, they were clear and effective in communicating their purpose. (Presumably that contemporary culture is…well…bland.)
The one wildcard in Present was the projections. In contrast to the straightforward “contemporary” movement and plain, button-down costumes, large pictures of everything from explosions to cartoons flashed on the stage wall. At times, this was fantastic – managing to connect, in some intangible (but definitely noticeable) way, the live performance with a black and white cartoon drawing of a chicken. Other times, the pictures of bombs and hurricanes read, at least to us, a little over-simplistic for an audience comprised of adults. (As in, yes, we know, bombs are bad.)
Future
This section summed it up – both for the production and for our thoughts regarding it. Here, Bartel’s choreography went back and forth from simple to extreme to, at times, strikingly innovative. One moment we were silently bemoaning the appearance of more standard movement from the modern catalogue, and the next we were awe-struck by the Bartel’s artistic ingenuity. Then, as the dancers eventually built the movement to a climax that overwhelmed us with its emotional impact, the production’s “story” also climaxed (or resolved) in a way that was either genius or utterly cringe-worthy. (No spoilers here, folks – you’ll have to decide for yourself.)
So, after all that, what’s the final verdict? If you’ve never, ever been to a modern dance show before, this might not be the best introduction. However, if you’re into the dance scene in Austin, or are familiar with Bartel’s work in particular, we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
It should be noted, also that Spank Dance lost their rehearsal space in that big fire at the KOOP building whilst in the middle of rehearsing this piece. The high quality of this production is a testament to the work ethic of Bartel and company.
* Photo by Simona Dumitru at Stock Exchange
