tinyrage in the morning Embracing the Inevitable in the afternoon

So… continuing the Northwest New Works Festival previews, today was for the Merrill Wright Mainstage Theatre, which seats about 200 more people than the studio. This adds a few problems as well as benefits, some of the intimacy is lost, there are now some people a lot further away, small is even smaller. On the other hand, there is the larger audience, the larger stage, more lights, louder sound, big is a bit bigger.

These are no-tech previews, so if you want to put yourself in place of the artists, imagine walking into a 60 by 40 stage, plugging your i-pod into a boom box, turning to face the 20 or so people (the tech crew, regional programs director Sean Ryan, artistic director, communications director, designer, press, photographers, family and friends perhaps), turn on your thang whatever it is and go. The light is work light. Any multimedia elements are on a TV screen and the boom box. Some of these pieces are being performed for the first time in public at all. It is a strange energy, but energy nonetheless.

Amy O/tiny rage Into the Fray – Amy O Neal leaves her usual appurtenances at home, no video, no live music, no Locust, it’s a solo bit. Her inspiration – ninjas (!) and “thinking about fights with yourself” and the piece will begin with a beat up Amy O, reenacting the fight. The small part of the overall 20 minutes she showed today expressed contained anger, performed in a limited space with a blindfold. She promises to reveal another side of herself as a performer, and I am intrigued to see how this plays out.

Danny Herter & The Invasive Species couloir (trek) – a couloir from the French for “corridor” is a gorge or a deep cleft in a mountain, and Danny’s “all terrain dance force” performs many marching, climbing and trekking movements in unison. There is text (uh oh!) but the dancers are quirky, charming, and funny. There is rap (Oh no!) but it is refreshingly original in its delivery and in the actual content. The use of costume (climbing gear, hooded jackets that zip together, goggles, backpacks) and the outer space references made this one of my favorite pieces.

Josephine’s Echopraxia stifle – Marissa Rae Niederhauser has made a powerful emotional dance, it got to me personally, and that is harder to do than it used to be before I got to be the jaded old bastard I am sometimes. Spencer Moody (Murder City Devils vocalist) has created an effective score, using rock guitars, piano and drums, mostly instrumental but with blues vocals at exactly the right moment. The piece may be inspired by Marissa’s brush with death but when the dancers move from the anguished distress at the beginning of the piece into frenetic unison, this dance is ultimately life affirming.

Mark Haim This Land is Your Land – Mark’s take on a country line dance, features a glorious variety of performers walking repeatedly, runway style up and down stage for nearly the full 20 minute limit for the festival. The transformation of this line over time is brilliant. I did wince when Trace Adkins (yes that badonkadonk song) immediately followed Hank Williams’ Cold Cold Heart but that is nothing to do with the piece, its just everyday sacrilege.

The Offshore Project The Buffoon – This piece features a 5 piece band and is inspired by Edward Gorey’s The Doubtful Guest in which a strange creature invades a home and stays for years, destroying things and brooding. Ezra Dickinson does a fantastic job of being the strange guest and playing with a chair.

Lingo Embracing the inevitable – KT Niehoff and Alia Swersky performed as a duet phrases learned from the other, and then each their own phrase simultaneously. My good friend Scott Colburn will create the music. KT spoke of being an experienced dancer, and how she was embracing the inevitable by accepting that her body is going to move only in the way that she has trained it for so long. Perhaps I’m not saying that well. The movement vocabulary was familiar, and I can see KT’s influence on and relationship with other Seattle dancers (see Amy O above). Nevertheless, we are talking about a great dancer. Perhaps there is a freshness to be found in acceptance, strength in working within perceived limits, both for KT and for those of us watching.

Corrie Befort Cut Chalk – This piece began today with Corrie singing, which was a surprise for her and us! The person who was to perform this part was not available, but it may be serendipitous. There is also rhythmic music performed by clapping and stomping from the dancers and musicians. Acoustic sounds performed by the dancers of in the voms of the theatre work really well, and I look forward to hearing integration with an electronic score from Tom Baker.

Laara Garcia/Pseudopod Interactive Sakura Rising – This is a live enactment of a video game, with multilevel projections, sound effects, martial arts, Kabuki style magic, and some great costumes. We didn’t get to see any of that. The no-tech format means that we really didn’t get to see the piece as it will be, and I hope the tech will give the support needed to the game character style choreography.

The Festival runs June 4-6 and 11-13 2010. The atmosphere is great, the energy and excitement is high, and I highly recommend you go and see it. Yes – I work at OTB. I’ll be running the sound. So I’ll see you there.

Links :

http://seattledances.blogspot.com/2010/05/otb-northwest-new-works-line-up.html