Leigh Donlan reports from ODC:
BodyTraffic in Barak Marshall’s And at Midnight, the Green Bride Floated through the Village Square… (Photo: Christopher Duggan)
BodyTraffic has quickly put the Los Angeles dance scene back on the map. The company was founded in 2007 by two dancers, Lillian Rose Barbeito and Tina Finkelman Berkett, who met in a L.A. ballet class. Frustrated with a dance scene driven by the movie and music industries, and craving the caliber of training and performance opportunity that rarely exists in Los Angeles, they joined forces and founded the company. Recently ranked by Dance Magazine as one of “25 to Watch” in 2013, BodyTraffic is a female-founded, dancer-powered company which commissions choreographers of their choice. Company members have also danced in various classical and contemporary companies including Baryshnikov’s Hells Kitchen Dance, Zhukov Dance Theatre and Cirque Du Soleil.
The closing night performance at San Francisco’s ODC Theater was sold out. The first work of the evening, And at Midnight, the Green Bride Floated Through the Village Square…, was by Israeli choreographer Barak Marshall. A tale of morality with themes of jealousy, rage, loneliness and gender inequality set to old Jewish love songs and traditional Yiddish, Ladino and Yemenite hymns, the darkly comedic tale opened with a bell toll and a woman standing alone, desperately clutching a bridal bouquet. Slowly, the stage filled with villagers and dancing ensued. The contemporary-folk choreography was quick and clever. Rhythmic gestures that changed beat by beat, akin to Akram Khan’s Sacred Monsters, all executed with great precision, both individually and as whole. As the work progressed, what was notably impressive in the dancers was a real sense of unity. There were no divas fluttering around, the dancers were clearly connected and committed to each other. This was evident in a scene where the dancers mimicked the traditional Jewish wedding chair dance sans chairs, and the bride and groom were so effortlessly cast about in the air by the ensemble that they appeared to be floating, never a weak link. The scene ended with another beautiful image as the dancers encircled the heads of the bride and groom, creating virtual crowns for the couple with their upward reaching arms and fingers. The original version of And at midnight… was narrated by Marshall’s mother, Margalit Oved, and I did wonder if the storyline lacked guidance without it, but overall this was an outstanding performance by all.
BodyTraffic in Kyle Abraham’s Kollide (Photo: Christo Brock)
Kyle Abraham’s Kollide was a preview of a work-in-progress which premieres next weekend at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. With edgy sophistication, two couples and an ‘other woman’ explored the meaning of intimacy, commitment, and the effects of wayward love. The set consisted mostly of dim light and shadow and an imposed window on the floor that the dancers moved in and out of at various stages of collision and departure. Abraham is known for his hybrid style which is highly physical and demanding, and this was a work that revealed the strengths of the dancers, particularly the females. At one point, the betrayed woman literally holds her lover up for a seemingly endless time as he is wrapped about her waist in shame and slowly melting to the floor. There were a few long winded moments in the piece that required the audience to stare perhaps a bit too long in silence and stillness, and some movement that could be polished, but I suspect the piece will only become stronger with time.
BodyTraffic in Richard Siegal’s o2Joy (Photo: Christopher Duggan)
The final work of the evening was o2Joy, Richard Siegal’s highly energetic tip-of-the-hat to the history of movement and American jazz music. Set to five jazz standards (Fitzgerald, Holiday, Miller and Peterson Trio), Siegal’s o2Joy was a trip down musical memory lane. Stylistically, it was an acknowledgement of the many Hollywood dancers who paved the road like Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly and many more. This piece brought out the dancers’ personalities, particularly Cooper Neely’s as he lip-synced Ella Fitzgerald’s All of Me and basked in the spotlight shimmying his hips, and Tina Berkett’s powerhouse allure. The dancers’ feet barely touched the ground in this piece, and when they did they were silenced by some sort of magically soundproof sock.
There’s no doubt that BodyTraffic is capable of delivering a powerful program, but because each of these works was so physically demanding, the program may have been a bit taxing for a company of this size.
