HQ Review: The Big Muddy Dance Company’s EVOLUTION: Program A

EVOLUTION continued The Big Muddy Dance Company’s season at the Catherine B. Berges Theatre on January 11-14, 2024.  This winter concert featured three different programs with a mixture of both familiar pieces and world premieres.  This review in particular will focus on the pieces in Program A, which the company performed on Friday, January 12.

Program A began with “Cloud 9”, choreographed by Norbert De La Cruz III.  It premiered in October of 2022.  The curtain opened to reveal all of the company dancers clustered together center stage, most of them kneeling or sitting on the floor, their bodies facing inward toward the center of the circle they created.  Wide panels of white wispy material hung in the wings of stage left and stage right, in place of the black panel curtains that normally hang in the wings.  Subtle haze from a fog machine added to the cloud-like setting as warm lighting bathed the entire stage.  The dancers’ upper bodies smoothly contracted up and down in one continuous movement in total silence, like a flower slowly blossoming a little more with each collective inhale and exhale.  The music made its subtle entrance and the dancers broke away from their formation.  

The dancers’ full movements, which included graceful cambrés, effortless lifts, deep lunges, mesmerizing formations, and clear facial expressions, clearly conveyed the mixture of happiness, pain, strife, and contentment that everyone in this life experiences in waves. The music crescendoed to match those emotions and softened again throughout the piece.  “Cloud 9” took the audience on a breathtaking ride through human emotions that one feels throughout life. 

“Angelic" is one word that describes “The Calling”, choreographed by Jessica Lang, which was the second piece in the show after the first intermission.  The curtain rose to reveal Lily Cong, the lone solo dancer for this piece (as well as a last-minute replacement), standing center stage in a pure white sleeveless dress with a very long white skirt that fanned out to create a large circular perimeter that extended several feet outward around the dancer.  This dress was clearly impossible to walk in due to not only its enormous size, but also the weight of the material.  Her movement started simply with port de bras that looked as light as air, which complemented the heavenly a cappella choir music that provided the soundtrack for this piece.  Her movements eventually graduated to pliés while still standing stationary, accompanied by more intricate upper body work, and eventually turns in place that twisted her long skirt tightly around her and added more visual dimension to the fabric, as well as the piece itself.  Such simple movements left the audience spellbound by what they witnessed.   

“Dance”, choreographed by Kirven Douthit-Boyd, was supposed to be the next piece to take the stage that evening, but an announcement made before the show began stated that “Vanity Fare”, choreographed by Marcus Jarrell Willis, would be performed in its place.  “Vanity Fare” is a familiar favorite in The Big Muddy’s repertoire that was part of the company’s first main stage show of this season (as well as the prior dance season), and this evening’s performance of the piece consistently maintained the entertainment quality that “Vanity Fare” possesses.  Anyone familiar with the piece noticed right away that this cast of dancers portraying mannequins no longer wore black pants with long-sleeved colored tops as in previous performances, but rather a mix of separate tops, pants, and dresses for a less uniform look.  The witty advice in the spoken word portion of the piece, energetic dancing, bright colors, effective lighting, and authentic storytelling through acting and movement delighted the audience once again.

“Playfolk”, choreographed by Bradley Shelver, finished off the evening with its celebratory tone.  In an unexpected twist, the house lights stayed up at the beginning of the piece while four dancers dressed in 1940s fashion danced in front of the curtain and interacted with audience members in the front row—even handing a drink to one person—before it rose.  The house lights faded out before the piece began on the bare stage and the stage lights lit up the dancers, who were all wearing different costumes from the same era.  The upbeat jazz music and youthful body language from the dancers lent the piece a very youthful, carefree atmosphere from start to finish.  The piece’s choreography included everything from high jumps, large formations, deep pliés in second, fast footwork, soaring leaps, and movement on many levels.  The music eventually slowed to highlight a duet between a man and a woman in the throes of young love, feeling all of the highs, lows, and everything in between and expressing those feelings with lifts, turns, leaps, and even screaming in each other’s faces.  The piece concluded with all of the dancers onstage on their knees, smacking the stage in unison with their hands as the curtain lowered.

Evolution has a streaming link available for anyone who would like to purchase temporary access to relive the journey that the audience took during this performance, as well as those who had not seen the show at all and want to experience it.
Learn more >>>