HQ Review: MADCO presents “Evolve: Courage in Motion”
This past weekend, to end their 49th season, The Modern American Dance Company (MADCO) presented, Evolve: Courage in Motion at the Staenberg Performance Lab at the Center of the Creative Arts (COCA). This triple bill was to commemorate the late Sarah Ann Johnson, a beloved teacher who impacted thousands of children through her passion for reading. Her unfortunate passing due to follicular lymphoma and the remarkable legacy she left behind sparked the curation of the program. Each piece tackled incredibly profound concepts such as grief, love, and hope.
The first piece, titled Imprinted, was directly choreographed to honor Sarah Ann Johnson. Created by MADCO’s Artistic Director, Arianna Russ, Imprinted tackled the topic of grief and how to navigate its ups and downs through abstract moments of Sarah Ann Johnson’s life. The piece starts with all the dancers on stage aimlessly moving in slow motion to a spoken poem about loss and remembrance (“… A Rose, is a Rose, is a Rose”) except for dancer Annie Mae Mitchell, who seems to walk around the other dancers with curiosity. Slowly they all leave with only Annie left, using her breath to create time with the music. The other dancers join back in with the same breath that rapidly increases in speed until their breath sounds like that of a freight train as they begin to dance quickly. When the dancers descend from the previous speed, dancer Katherine Kennedy presents Annie with a book. From here many scenes are presented to the audience in relatively quick succession. First with intense actions with hints of aggression and agony as the dancers go in and out of complex partnering phrases, then to the sound of a ticking clock as the dancers all congregate behind Annie seeming to manipulate her movements, and then of soft tranquility with sounds of nature as dancer Gabriella Ray is featured in a solo and pantomimes gathering something or somethings to herself. All these scenes are danced to what sounds like a theme and variations to the poem from the beginning. Each of these scenes seems to suggest essential moments, thoughts, or feelings of Sarah Ann’s life; from her beginnings becoming a teacher and finding her love for books, to her feelings of anxiety and sadness to hardships in her life, and to her love of nature and the peace she feels when she is in it.
When the halfway point of the piece began, the music took a dramatic shift to sharper, almost horror-movie-like sounds as dancer Daryon Kent started a solo in a spotlight. He began by dancing softly but then he reacted more violently to the music causing the other dancers to frantically jump and move to the sound of an increasing heartbeat. Then Annie clenched her abdomen as if in confused agony while Gabriella Ray returned to her pantomime from earlier but with more vigor. This staggering and almost hard-to-watch section of the dance might be a representation of Sarah Ann’s diagnosis and her feelings of her life crashing down around her. The work ends on a softer, yet still somber tone as the frantic music softens to the song, I’ll Be Seeing You performed by Dinah Shore. During this scene, dancer Cassie Callahan performs a short solo before she stares off past the audience, as if in deep thought, all while the other dancers slowly move in the background. In the end, Cassie takes Annie and gently lays her down while the other dancers grab a book and sit their backs to the audience reading. Although the dancers were not listed in the playbill to be any specific representations of anyone or anything, Annie seemed to move the piece from scene to scene, as she continuously acts like a bystander looking in on what the other dancers are doing. One could even make the argument that Annie could be the physical representation of Sarah Ann herself. As for the other dancers, the piece hints that they could be corporeal depictions of Sarah Ann’s memories or personality and are reacting to the feelings from key moments in Sarah Ann’s life. Katherine Kennedy could be Sarah Ann’s love of reading, Gabriella Ray, her love of nature, Daryon Kent, her grief and aggression, and Cassie Callahan, her legacy, laying her down kindly ensuring that she left a lasting impact on the world. No matter what, Arianna Russ specifically intended for her dancers to represent, her goal was clear: to create a dance to celebrate Sarah Ann’s incredible life and she did just that.
Duet for Wreck, choreographed in 2007 by guest choreographer, Carl Flink, was the second and most impressive piece of the night. The duet was performed by guest artist Will Brighton and Artistic Director, Arianna Russ. The short yet impactful piece portrayed the complexities of love between a married couple. Right off the bat, the first image of the piece was a sight to behold. The lights go up to show Will and Arianna on stage holding themselves upside-down on top of their own respective benches. It was like a moment frozen in time. When the music begins, Arianna and Will begin to dance by themselves, doing similar steps but never together, as if they are listening to the same music but dancing to different rhythms within it. They slowly begin to sync up and when they do, Will joins Arianna on her bench. From there a narrator speaks to the audience over the music telling the story about “... two lovers on a park bench...” Even though the story seems to be expressing how much the two couples love each other, both Will and Arianna’s movements suggest otherwise as they aggressively manipulate the other into lifts, jumps, and turns. Even their expression is void of any sight of love or care for the other. This juxtaposition with the narrator’s story seems to suggest that the two “lovers’” words do not match their true feelings. Yet there are some hints of love throughout the piece, as Will has a moment of closing his eyes and lying on Arianna’s shoulder, or when Arianna tosses herself onto Will as if to embrace for a passionate hug. But the other never reciprocates the love as they either sit there emotionless or aggressively respond back to the other. At the end of the piece, the two stand facing the audience, and both attempt to hold hands without looking at the other. They fail, until Arianna forces her hand into Will’s. Is this an action of forced resolution between the fighting couple or the final straw to suggest the end of the relationship? The audience is left to figure that out for themselves. When first discussing placing this piece into the program, Carl told Arianna his only stipulation was that she must perform the piece. It was evident why as Arianna’s talent and energy on stage made the piece have a level of maturity and power that tied the whole thing together. Will Brighton was a great pick as well; he is a talented mover and his partnering with Arianna was both powerful and graceful. Duet for Wreck was a masterclass of what can happen when great dancers are given great choreography. The result is magic on the stage for the audience to enjoy.
The final piece of the night, Riding the Maelstrom, was also choreographed by Carl Flink. Originally choreographed in dedication to Carl’s mother's final 6 months battling cancer, its message is about the incredible resilience of the human spirit. The dance begins with all the dancers dressed in white, except for dancer Gabriella Ray who is garbed in all red. She examines her body and uses her right hand to trace things around her stomach, arms, and legs while the other dancers move in the foreground. It is never explained but the wandering hand and examining of the body could reflect the changes that happen when going through chemotherapy. Once the music changes, Gabriella joins the other dancers and she stays with them for the rest of the dance. The dancers act as one, jumping in grand jetes while two other dancers break off into a duet. This repeats until the stage lights turn red and a coda-like ending begins. The music picks up significantly and so do the dancers, as they run together like a flock of birds. The formations weave in and out as some dancers run into the group while screaming in glee as they get caught in mid-air as if in utter delight and abandon. The coda winds down with an electric guitar going rogue, screeching as dancers all begin to drop to the floor abruptly, leaving only Gabriella staring at her fallen friends. Riding the Maelstrom is interesting, in that even with the knowledge of what the piece is about, the music as well as the choreography never once suggests depictions or thoughts of turmoil. The music is upbeat and the dancers, although performing in a highly athletic piece filled with jumps and running sequences, never express sadness. If anything, they express happiness and joy. Carl explains in the post-show Q&A that he wanted the piece to focus more on the profound peace his mother found during her final days and not on the darker topic of the misery cancer can have on friends and loved ones. There are always two sides to the same coin and Carl wanted to focus on the more positive and hopeful one. Riding the Maelstrom was a great choice to end the night, especially after its darker predecessors.
Overall, Evolve: Courage in Motion was a program created to celebrate the life of Sarah Ann Johnson and in turn the beautiful complexities of the human condition. If you want to help MADCO in honoring Sarah Ann’s legacy you can participate in their book drive or donate to the newly created Sarah Ann Johnson Legacy Fund which supports Books in Motion programming for schools in need.
Photos by Carly Vanderheyden