Among the distinctive attributes of the two-day Walking Distance Dance Festival are that it happens simultaneously in at least two venues – ODC Theater and ODC Commons – and that you’ll likely encounter a crowd flow in both directions on Shotwell Street during performance hours. The project is also notable for encouraging what passes for dance to break out in the area at any time.
Friday, before the beginning of choreographer Lionel Popkin‘s presentation, the ODC Theater lobby exploded in a preperformance routine from the local group Headmistress. Amara Tabor-Smith erupted in a volcanic solo, which sought some kind of transcendence with its repeated barefoot attacks on the floor, to a violin and recorder accompaniment.
Later, in the ODC Commons, Tabor-Smith gave us an approximation of an immobile statue, holding a pose for a small eternity on a pedestal of boxes. The performer’s rigorous technique is admirable, but one can’t quite see this as a choreographic milestone. The silence was ruptured by constantly clicking cameras, which made it all seem like something of a stunt. Context may matter more than Tabor-Smith believes it does.
Meanwhile, inside Studio B, Tabor-Smith’s colleague, Sherwood Chen, delivered “Mongrel,” a remarkable solo that made this third edition of the festival spring to life. It began with the performer, concealed behind skirts, capes, gloves and mask, spinning mysteriously, dervish-like.
Then, Chen gradually divested himself of these garments with the elan of a professional stripper, creating a trail of castoff clothes. He followed with a slow routine that partook of the Japanese butoh tradition, with every muscle doing its job. Yet, the constant presence of a hand mirror and the costume change to a white shift suggested that, for all its doom-laden baggage, there just may be something narcissistic about the butoh heritage and, as he gathered up the clothes in a ball, something preposterous, too.
It was clear from Popkin’s “Ruth Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” (West Coast premiere) that the choreographer is pondering Ruth St. Denis, whose exotic dances in the early 20th century he believes added up to cultural appropriation. We’ll never know for sure, because the festival seriously goofed by presenting the work in extract form.
Popkin and his engaging partners, Emily Beattie and Carolyn Hall, flashed projections about St. Denis’ changing identities and rolled around the floor to a fine Guy Klucevsek score played live by the composer and cellist Mary Rowell. The dancers also tried on what purported to be their subject’s costumes strewn around the floor. Popkin stacks the deck: Nowhere in what we saw does he explain why St. Denis captivated millions, not least among them, Martha Graham.
Doug Elkins opened the festivities in the ODC Theater on Saturday evening with the captivating “Hapless Bizarre” (West Coast premiere). To the sound of a lecture on how to impress the ladies mixed with slushy romantic ballads, the six splendid dancers cavort in romantic situations, looking for conquest and ending up mateless but wiser.
The dancers assume roles: Mark Gindick is the bespectacled nerd. Kyle Marshall is the stud. Deborah Lohse is the impossibly tall kook in the print dress. Their exchanges are fluid, sophisticated in pop dance vogues of the past and sheer fun. If Elkins is competing for clown prince of modern dance, he has my vote.
Next in Studio B, Amy O’Neal showed the crowd why she is so prized in contemporary dance circles. “The Most Innovative, Daring and Original Piece of Dance/Performance You Will See This Decade” (excerpt) is as self-referential and cute as the title suggests. Yet O’Neal’s sinewy performance style in several varieties of dance from modern to hip-hop and her extraordinary control of dynamics mattered a lot more than the loaded politicizing. It’s just the kind of new talent one hopes to see more of at future Walking Distance Dance Festivals.
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