HQ Review: Karlovsky and Company Dance presents PLAYFUL PAIRINGS
Fresh movement, sounds, foods and drinks were the buzzwords for “Playful Pairings,” a truly collaborative site-specific concert by Karlovsky & Company Dance at .Zack. First occurring in 2017, the event features light fare and strong drinks — with mocktail options — crafted to pair with each work’s movement qualities, live music, and environment.
The show opened in a small space enclosed by the audience and a wall of windows, setting the stage for Melissa Miller’s work, “Stooges,” created in collaboration with dancers Summer Beasley, Abigail Hinrichs, and Sam Schenkein. Accompanist Kalo Hoyle takes a starting pluck of the upright bass, the dancers stretching time as they deftly shift onto rows of wooden chairs that share the space. They lean, bend, shift, hold, exhale and rotate as Hoyle’s sounds build with an urging. In an organized flurry, the dancers reorganize the chairs until they form a round stage of their own, the setting for three amusing solos involving a suit jacket with a life of its own.
“Stooges” displays theatricality and innovative use of a small space. The work climaxes as Schenkein whips open the patio door, the outdoor lights flipping on to illuminate him atop a bench with movement powerful enough to reverberate through the brick wall separating him from the audience.
Company Founder and Artistic Director Dawn Karlovsky’s piece “Lounge Lizards” took form just feet from the previous work. Audience members and volunteers adjusted their seats to face a bouncy sofa and a wallpaper of muted lavender and navy. With costume color-matching that would impress a chameleon, dancers Emily Gregg, Elise Harowitz, and Sam Schenkein camouflage into the space. Surprising shapes form out of moments of lounging limbs and draping bodies in a satisfying exploration of the site’s possibilities. The trio’s mutual trust in each other and in the cushioned lounge seating is evident, supporting each other through seamless transitions and exciting feats of strength and poise. Walking on walls, stately lifts and presses are the hallmarks of this piece, defying gravity with lackadaisical movement that was anything but lazy.
The exploration carried into the accompaniment by Tory Starbuck, whose innovative use of the clarinet and electronics was — to risk repetition — playful, both sinuous and squealing as it elevated the dancers’ movement.
It was easy to drop into the world of “Dwellers,” a transportative duet by Liliana Merifield. Shadows of blue-green lights soared over a chain link curtain that separated dancers Ashley Mason and Melissa Miller, and accompanist Hoyle’s electronic investigation of dropping water and bellowing sounds evoked the environment of a quiet cavern.
With weighted precision the dancers rise in and out of the floor, steadily enlivening the space. Their energies are both graceful and powerful as their limbs form bulbous shapes with the billowing chain curtain, resembling surface tension before water breaks. While the two are separated, this same understated tension unites them. This visual eye-candy peaks as the dancers finally assemble through the curtain, mirroring each other as if seeing their reflections through a glassy lake. “Dwellers” is contemplative, entrancing and visually stunning, showcasing the power of two people holding space together without the necessity of touch.
Peering into an eyepiece, the audience experienced “Kaleidoscope,” the delightfully precise work by Elise Harowitz made in collaboration with dancers Abby Hinrichs, Liliana Merifield, Emilee Morton, and Ramona Orion. Encircling a square column in the center of a round, this work was a display of agile strength and technical clarity.
Exploring the rooted structure of the column, the dancers used it to lean, press and push off, sliding across the floor and landing in shocking symmetry, mimicking a kaleidoscope’s colorful shifting patterns. Their direct movements complimented Maurice “Mo” Egeston’s piano accompaniment, whose soundtrack reflected the work’s lighthearted quality.
Inspired just as much by the space it inhabits as the human experience is Ramona Orion’s intimate work “Four Walls and Windows,” described as “movement to explore, movement to play, movement to be.” The work was performed on the fourth floor of .Zack, surrounded with windows that provide a near 360 degree view of St. Louis’ cityscape. The dancers seem to be aware of the boundless space around them, their movements both jutting and supple to contrast the visible angular architecture.
Entering with clothing hung over their arms, dancers Emily Gregg, Ashley Mason, Liliana Merifield, and Emilee Morton lay the pants and top out on the floor and lay parallel to it. Like a fly on the wall of a morning routine, the audience watches as they clothe themselves with pedestrian movement, before commencing a unified bouncing that splits into separate phrases, elastic and full bodied.
The piece was made even more intimate with the electronic guitar accompaniment by e-GoS, aka Gabriel Vianello, who sat in the corner of the make-shift stage as if playing at a house party. With a larger stage than previous works, this piece had space to breathe, and breathe it did.
The show closed with “Migrate,” a structured improvisation choreographed by Emilee Morton and created in collaboration with the dancers. Using the full company, “Migrate” is a quirky closer, featuring flamboyant evening gowns individual to each dancer.
Accompanist Lance Garger takes an establishing pound on a drum, and the dancers take the space with fervor, skittering and chugging across the floor. Inspired by bird migrations, the dancers enter the space using the high level, arriving in lines before springing or curving out of them in constant motion. This piece took full advantage of the boundless opportunity prompted by fabric, tugging and swishing their dresses like a bird fluffing its feathers.
“Migrate” highlights Karlovsky & Company Dance’s commitment to movement investigation, and balanced high energy with tender sensitivity. In the largest space of the night, this piece truly migrates.
While the show was stripped down to allow for changing sites — the audience and volunteers repositioning chairs to face some of the works — the concert was far from underproduced. The improvisational use of moveable lights and quality of sound made it easy to shift into the world of the works. The venue, .Zack, proves to be an exciting space for work of this nature, with several floors of ample environments rife with creative opportunity. The concert’s involvement of food and drink was compelling — and delicious — but a more specific description of the pairings could make for an even more well-rounded experience.
Playful Pairings was generous with its humor and humility and provided exciting fuel for the child-at-heart’s temptation to climb, roll and play in their surroundings.
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Photos by Carly Vanderheyden