HQ REVIEW: The Big Muddy Dance Company’s final concert of its 23/24 Season unveils its new “IDENTITY” as Saint Louis Dance Theatre
Identity, an evening-length show by The Big Muddy Dance Company, was performed at the Catherine B. Berges Theatre. Program C consisted of three pieces, Come...The Sun Doesn’t Wait by Omar Román de Jesús, Notes on a Farewell by Tommie-Waheed Evans, and PlayFolk by Bradley Shelver, each separated by three short intermissions.
At the top of the show Executive Director Erin Prange took the stage to share some of the plans for the company in their next season as well as to introduce one major change. In the season ahead The Big Muddy Dance Company will transition to a new name: Saint Louis Dance Theatre. Described in their already updated website as a “repertory dance company that showcases high caliber artistic experiences” which aims to be “an instrument of optimism through inclusivity, collaboration, and artistic excellence,” we look to see the continued unfolding of Artistic Director Kirven Douthit-Boyd’s vision for the company in the season ahead.
Come...The Sun Doesn’t Wait by Omar Román de Jesús opened the evening and began gradually. Wanderingly. The curtain was closed while the music, a lamenting female vocal, began, and rose to a sparsely lit stage with dancers already in motion. A male dancer undulated on hands and feet while two duets went on around him. Dressed in black and shades of maroon, sequins and bare skin flashed under the white circles of light blooming around the dancers in an oblong shape. The back of the stage was exposed, dark, a seeming abyss dropping away behind the moving bodies. The partners responded to one another with great sensitivity, sometimes by moving in unison and other times tangled up in one another's limbs. A touch to the head from one partner sent the other careening. The tone of the opening was quiet and hazy - like a dream you suddenly fall into, or a memory being replayed over and over. The dancers moved in spirals - spines and limbs contracting and unfurling. Animal-like and vertebral they found their way to one another as if through thick water while the music meandered on, melancholic and strange. The peculiar movement quality suggested young children discovering limbs and spine, exploring all their distal points and how they might connect. A series of duets and solos ensued, each dancer a distinct character, odd and elegant, coming in and out of the circle of stark lights. There were several striking moments of tenderness in the partnering, such as one duet which ended with a dancer holding his partner to his chest as one would a child.
About midway through the piece a performer snapped their fingers and snow began to fall from the ceiling, eventually lightly covering the stage in a white dust. The muted tone and uncanny dreamscape deepened. This was the careful construction of a dream world: mad and tender, dark and lovely, warm and frightening. It seemed to be a tender view into the crevices of a well-worn mind - a world built of overlapping memories or of imaginary friends half remembered. As the curtain fell the dancers continued to move, some laying in the fallen snow and others running in a wide circle together, connected in a line, hands to shoulders.
The second piece of the evening, Notes on a Farewell by Tommie-Waheed Evans, represented a stark tone shift. Under warm lights nine dancers moved mostly in unison to love ballads and electronic music dressed in warm orange, pink and red costumes. The dancers moved in broad, bold shapes with arms curved and chests flung to the ceiling, or in exciting leaps and rolls to the floor. Duets emerged and dissipated over and over again but the overwhelming structure was of enthusiastic unison. The dancers' focus was often directly out at us, broad smiles or mischievous glances thrown our way building an altogether less introspective tone than the first piece of the night.
The piece crescendoed in a scene reminiscent of a night club: electronic music throbbed as dancers moved in full-bodied unison, or in runway-like rows, throwing out arms and legs in elongated shapes before descending into pulsing movement with legs bent and heads down. This continued for some time, building in intensity, until the lights dulled, and the music stuttered and faded into silence. Performers began leaving the stage slowly, walking away from us and one another in all different directions. One dancer was left to continue moving in the middle of the stage, in complete silence, as the rest of the company disappeared. She repeated phrases of movement which she and her cohort had just performed together, then carefully turned around and around herself while the curtain slowly fell.
Notes on a Farewell was certainly a demonstration of this group of dancers' physical prowess but the unusual finish seemed to suggest a story being told. The final moment was effective because of all the work which had come before it - the absolute saturation of light, sound, and movement in the minutes leading up created a stunning sense of emptiness around the lone dancer on a stage suddenly drained of light, sound, and bodies. The title of the piece was perhaps a clue as to the particular story we were being told and certainly the final moment offered an evocative ending.
The third and final piece of the night was PlayFolk by Bradley Shelver. This piece was performed by the company earlier this year and was as enjoyable to watch this particular evening as it was at its premier. From its casual and disarming beginning to its unhinged culmination, this piece is an exciting slice of the very messy joy that it is to be a human being in a moving, feeling, dancing body.
“Saint Louis Dance Theatre not only brings life to our community; we reflect life in our community. Bringing together world-class artistry and audacious vision, purpose drives performance. Always in step with our craft and our conscience, we are an instrument of optimism through inclusivity, collaboration and artistic excellence.”
MISSION: Saint Louis Dance Theatre is a repertory dance company that showcases high caliber artistic experiences. By engaging both emerging and world-renowned choreographers, collaborating across the St. Louis community through senior outreach, and training future performers through our educational programs, we constantly strive to invigorate life through dance.
VISION: To be known in the Saint Louis region for the creativity and power of world class dance.
Photos by Kelly Pratt