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| Posted by: Behind The Scenes |
4/17/2008 3:22 PM |
“I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things.” —Antoine de Saint Exupéry, aviator and author of The Little Prince
Above the Law
by Austin Buchholtz
We gravity-laden audience members are squirming in anticipation to see dancers achieve what most of us only dream about. Another sold-out (and wait-listed) performance of “Air-Condition” by Brenda Angiel Aerial Dance Company in PSU Lincoln Hall bespeaks our deep seated desire to break the bounds of gravity. But will it be a flowery circus spectacle or will the dance carry some…um…weight?
Part One opens with five dancers plastered against a dark wall encompassing the whole back of the stage, each in his or her own amorphous light. As the dancers shape-shift like nuclei of luminous cells, their corresponding light shape changes too, mimicking the bodies in their individual moves, often independent from the group. At one point, all five stand and look straight up—that is to say, directly at the audience: a visual treat only birds and angels are normally allowed. Such an angle is only the first in a series of fresh perspective-altering uses of the stage.
Blog author Austin (left) with dancer Juan Leiba
In Part Three, three pairs of legs drop into view from behind the top of the proscenium arch as though strutting in the air high above the floor. They cross themselves playfully and the outer pair even walk up the middle pair. Soon the legs disappear only to be replaced by three goofy upside down faces with Dr.-Seuss-yellow hair. The piece finishes with a sudden and thrilling free-fall to very close to the floor, which is yet another treat—falling without the usual consequences.
Ana Armas twitters her feet high off the ground in Part Ten in a post-postmodern tango with her earthbound partner Pablo Carrizo. All the traditional cortés, ochos, and kicks are stretched to hyperbole. In Part Eight she even walks up his arm, then off into space.
An apparently simple solo in Part Twelve by Pablo Carrizo—again suspended from the wall, but with a simultaneous video projection of his figure on the same wall—becomes a visually compelling Rubik’s Cube of shifting vantage points. The video camera captures him from the side, and at a 90º angle, so while we see him walking down the wall the projection shows him walking on the floor towards the wall. By the time we figure this out, the camera swivels again while he is fully upside down hands on the floor, and the projection makes it look as though he is walking hand over hand on the ceiling.
When the dancers bow, the riggers join them—revealing a not-so-shocking truth: the riggers’ talents for perfect timing and expertise at safety with ropes and harnesses keep the dancers unbroken and alive. The riggers are indeed an essential, although hidden, part of the company’s success.
After the performance, I join the Buenos Aires-based company at Cassidy’s Restaurant for a late night dinner, hosted by White Bird board member Maynard Orme and his wife Lynne de Vries. I chat with dancer Leonardo Haedo who has been dancing with Angiel since the mid-ninties. Now 44 years old and the only company member from Uruguay, Haedo tells me the dancers rely on the riggers to pull them to within an inch or so of their targets, on time, and with exact speed. Andrés Puertas, the lead rigger is an experienced mountain climbing guide who leaves nothing to chance.
The Brenda Angiel Aerial Dance Company at Cassidy's in Portland.
I ask Leonardo how most people react to their dances. He says most audience members say they want to do it too. They seek it like a therapy, making real the gravity-defying dream we all have as children.
Even with our butts planted, Brenda Angiel Aerial Dance Company takes us a flying leap closer to that dream, little princes and princesses all.
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Austin Buchholtz is a graphic designer, writer, and certified instructor of ballroom and latin dance.Austin was White Bird's Director of Audience Services from August 2001 to December 2003.
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Re: Above the Law |
By Jonathan Krebs on
4/24/2008 7:56 AM |
| A beautiful post Austin! I wish I could have seen it!<br><br>jonathan |
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