HQ Review: WashU’s 2024 MFA Dance Concert

Ark by Emily Duggins Ehling

“We walk into tomorrow, carrying nothing but the world.” A lofty statement to include in the program notes of Emily Duggins Ehling’s MFA Thesis work “Ark”, but one befitting the gravitational pull of this piece. The manner in which Ehling uses the concept of ocean cycles as thematic material to bring a rich density to the world of this dance.

As the stage revealed itself, a multitude of 22 dancers begin to appear in the corner, backlit by a soft blue haze of light. There is a softness to their presence. A lilt. They begin to slowly circulate among each other as dancers pass forward and others circulate back. It is a gentle flow of movement, seaweed rippling in the ocean, currents pressing bodies forward, then gently carrying them back. These patterns continue to accumulate, disintegrate, and then reform again, carrying the audience into the world of the work, a place where time as we know it is a distant idea, and one can simply sink into the gentle sway and pull of the bodies on stage.

Though this patterning does not continue through the entire piece, the essence of time and space it utilizes continues to extrapolate itself in the atmosphere of this work. Bodies pass two by two, diagonally across stage, recalling the cataclysmic story of Noah’s ark and the animals who passed into it. Ripples of the chest emanate out into the limbs, and movement motifs pass seamlessly between dancers, signaling the intrinsic harmony between these 22 individuals on stage. Throughout the work, each dancer embodies a sense of ease and fluidity amidst the various swings, leaps, and extensions in the choreography. It is clear that Ehling’s ethos of care and empathy has been soaked in by these dancers, and they are able to execute with clarity how this piece was intended to be embodied.

As the piece eases itself to a close, the dancers are drawn back into the circulatory patterning in which the piece began. But a shift has occurred. They fill the entire stage. There is an energetic strength to their bodies that was not there before. Is it an intentional difference? Or maybe the journey of the piece has brought a new vibrancy that was not there before. Perhaps the tides of the ocean always bring us back to where we’ve already been. But perhaps this drawing back, this return is a gift. For within its own unique time frame, we can see that despite the supposed monotony, so much inside of us has already shifted.

Swipe by Caroline Gonsalves Bertho

A bright, yet hazy light emanates from stage left. What is this world we are entering? A world accompanied by the electronic pulses and zings crafted by local musician, Tory Starbuck. Dancers enter from stage right, beginning in unison as their heavy feet march themselves towards the light, as if enraptured by what it contains. From the get go, this work, alongside the program note was clear in what it wanted to be about. Reflecting on “the changes in human interactions that [technology] provokes”, this hazy light coming from offstage felt like that which comes from a TV or phone screen, and these dancers cannot not pull themselves away as they move towards it with an enthralled yet conflicted manner. Soon enough, the dancers seem to be absorbed by the light as they exit stage left, and a new scene begins to take hold of the stage.

As the scene transforms, a sort of spherical jungle gym is moved downstage. As dancers enter and exit the sphere, a chaotic energy multiplies itself through their bodies. An energy that undulates through the torso, locks itself in the shoulders, then releases once more through the arms. This was just one moment of many in which a hip hop vernacular was of clear interest to Bertho, while also allowing this vocabulary to give way to a wide breath of qualities that inhabited the entire body.

The piece continues as dramatic music seeps into every corner of the stage. It feels like some emotional climax is about to occur. Suddenly, the sound of a phone ringing interrupts the moment. Did someone forget to silence their phone? But it wasn’t an audience member, it was the intentional interruption of the audio score as the dancer onstage searches their self for their imagined cell phone, as if they themselves had created this interjection. This moment clearly made visible (and audible) what this piece wanted to communicate. And this quality of audio stimulated interjection continued throughout much of the work. Soundscapes of different people simultaneously talking about their morning routine. Or the soundtrack quickly jumping from one thing to the next, ranging from quick blurbs of Harry Styles’ “As it Was”, to electronically haphazard reverberations.

The world of this piece constrained itself to this atmosphere for much of its latter existence. The constant audible interruptions contained in the sound score, and how the dancers would physically respond to them began to feel like an embodiment of the endless cycle of media that is constantly fed to us. Always seeing another news story or another advertisement, so much so that we are lulled into a passive awareness, knowing that something else might jump up again and interrupt our current state. But with the topic of the piece, perhaps this was a fitting mood to generate for the viewer. This media overload, this desensitization, making the viewer question for themselves how this media inspired landscape they see before them might be indicative of their own relationship to how pervasive technology has become in their lives. Have we interrupted the flow of what we once knew? What is the through line that technology continues to interrupt? We swipe and swipe and swipe, one thing to the next. When will the swiping cease?

Seasons: Colors of My Life: A Take on Tagore’s Compositions by Amarnath Ghosh

A single table, dimly lit in the downstage right corner. Deepangsu Chatterjee comes out to read a poem he wrote at the request of Amarnath Ghosh. “Seasons are the sentiments of nature”, so goes the contemplative reading by Chatterjee. With this text, a tone is set, and these “sentiments of nature” give greater context for experiencing the dance film by Ghosh that follows. A project he had been working on this past year in collaboration with many professional dancers and artists from India. Inspired by the writings of Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, the film is divided into six sections, and each section acts as a physical exploration of the unique qualities and temperaments of each season. Ghosh utilizes his intrinsic understanding of different Indian dance styles that range from Bharatanatyam to Kuchipudi to convey these to the viewer. With each new season, a different color of life is expanded upon, and a new way of witnessing the world is uncovered through the lens of Ghosh’s artistry. There are moments where joy crescendos through the body of Ghosh as he runs uninhibited across a beach, and then others where solemnity overtakes the atmosphere, and a softness enters the body. With each season, from summer to monsoon season, autumn to pre-winter, and winter to spring, Ghosh captures the essence of each time period, thus bringing clarity to the idea that each season has its own unique value.

In another section of Chatterjee’s poem, he reads: “For nature, seasons remain an inevitable truth.” The weight of this inevitability feels ever more present, as Amarnath Ghosh’s life was unexpectedly taken almost a month ago by a random act of violence. His life and the art that he has left behind should not be defined by this moment, but it would be remiss to ignore the resonance of his work presented within the context of this reality. Though I did not personally know Ghosh, I was able to see him perform live a few of times the past couple years. I was immediately struck by the vigor of his performances, the way it felt like his soul was expanding out into his torso and limbs as he danced. It is with that kind of energy and spirit that I imagine Ghosh’s presence on this earth is still with those who knew him. It would be remiss not to mention the current absence the dance community feels without his presence, but also a dismissal of who Ghosh is if that is all he is remembered by.

Watching Amarnath Ghosh dance is something of a profound experience. Particularly the visceral presence that his facial expressions carry and their connection to what he physically executes. Whether it be a twitch of the eyebrow, a smirk of the lips, or a glimmer in the eyes, these emotions are injected into the way his hands swivel or the pulse of his feet on the ground. Even now, it is a reminder of the transcendent emotional aliveness in which Ghosh existed upon this earth.

“But how are the seasons weaved together so neatly that they don't fight against each other?Perhaps the supernatural.
But for us human travelers,
Empathy and love can keep us together,
In a world that all travelers would like visiting.”
-Deepangsu Chatterjee