HEAVY OBJECTS (and light movements)

Chicago dancemaker of promise, Drew Lewis, is one of three artists selected to participate in the Work Around Series presented by Steppenwolf Theatre. The Work Around residency gives each artist (in this case three choreographers) 40 hours of rehearsal space and a place to perform their creations.

Part self-portrait and part inspired by the work of artist/activist David Wojnarowicz, Lewis used the allotted studio time to create Heavy Objects (and light movements), an hour-long dance mosaic, and shared the results in the 1700 Theatre. A shallow and wide space, seeing dance in the 1700 feels like watching a tennis match with ample space for dancers to move side to side and not much depth. 

Among the pieces sections, there is no obvious activism, and none of the stark imagery that might be associated with Wojnarowicz's art, save for a brief soundtrack of presumably Wojnarowicz recounting witnessing the deterioration of friends and acquaintances fallen to AIDS.

No matter. We don't need to be told what this dance is about. We need only to take the ride. And Lewis, dancing along with Isabella Limosnero and Maddy Joss, takes us on an hour-long ragged, weighty and very very human journey.

From the opening moment of Limosnero balancing on tip toe while the lights shift around them, to the closing of Lewis and Limosnero seated on the floor, smiling their way through a personal conversation, we experience this dance viscerally as it unfolds. We hear the dancers, we see the sweat, we feel weight, but not effort. We see repetition, but not fatigue. We see the stamina of the trio.

The bulk of the piece features a seamless and galvanizing partnership between Lewis and Joss. Joss repeatedly drags Lewis across the floor, Lewis holds Joss horizontally as she revolves like a limp rotisserie. The two jolt as if receiving the impulse of electric shocks, and in one powerful section with long hair flying, they swirl, curve and turn over and over again so near to each other and so in sync, you would swear you are watching a single dancer.

These passionate duets dominate the imagery of the piece and rarely relate to the clear and strong solo work of Limosnero. But occasionally all three connect and what happens then is dangerous and exciting. At one pinnacle, Joss emerges from under the collapsed full weight of the other two dancers. For a moment prior, it feels as if she won't be able to crawl out from under the pile but will remain there struggling. In another section Lewis and Limosnero run at each other slamming chests like football players celebrating a touchdown. The slamming repeats until it feels like too much, on the brink of knocking the wind out of each other. 

When the mostly ambient soundtrack (uncredited in the printed program) gives way to a few seemingly unrelated sections featuring lyrics, the connection between text and dance is unclear. And when the aforementioned text from Wojnarowicz plays near the end, any relationship between sound and dance is lost

Despite the sections occasionally feeling disconnected, the work eventually emerges as many fragments of the same palate. Aside from a few false endings, Heavy Objects does not feel heavy or too long, but fresh, fearless and honest. 


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