Visceral Dance, Winter Engagement

Visceral Dance Company opened their Winter Engagement program of four dances at the Ann Barzel Theatre with Minor Threat, a work they first presented in 2017. Despite the title and dark corset costumes, there is nothing threatening nor dark about this piece. Mark Golden's choreography is straight up music visualization with ten dancers physicalizing the nuances and details of a Mozart piano concerto score. Hunched over, hands behind their knees, they slowly advance upstage like injured ducks. Leaping into lifts, dancers' chests slam together then, legs swing back arching away from their partner. Patterns repeat in cannon to mesmerizing effect. In a highlight moment, one dancer runs at another full force and catapults herself into the air to be caught facing backwards in a side split. The movement seems impossible, but the effort appears minimal. Meredith Harrill stands out in a brief solo, smiling softly and playfully articulating the music with command and clarity.

The only new work on the program, Name It, choreographed by Danielle Agami, was the most original. Although unclear in concept and not fully developed, there's plenty to pique curiosity and intrigue. The ten-dancer ensemble shifts from rapid hand gestures to slow unison to leaps and jumps with a raw uncontrolled energy that matches their motley layered t-shirt costumes. They jump up shifting places, like popcorn in progress, blurt indecipherable words at random times and stand in a line at the edge of the stage frozen. Between the opening moment of Harrill slowly somersaulting onstage, and the ending blackout which comes out of nowhere, the dancers recite text about being considered non-essential in the early days of the pandemic, and about donating money to dance. It's all tongue in cheek, but it's disjointed and doesn't connect with the rest of movement. Somewhat of a kitchen sink dance loaded with a variety of stylistic movement, it seemed that Agami wasn't sure where to go with it all. The result feels muddy, but pushes this technically trained group in new exciting directions.

The second half of the program features two works by Nick Pupillo, both created in 2020. In Ash in the Rainbow a short, sinewy duet, Braeden Barnes and Michelle Meltzer fill the dance with tension. It's smooth and elastic and more about longing than loving.

Pupillo's Avow uses nine dancers adorned in black trunks and tops. The group swirls, curves and suspends with impressive unison. Long legs extend and sustain, seeming to go on forever and dancers lunge low and slowly rise standing on tiptoe as if elevating themselves in some sort of magic trick. High energy, this is pure dance--fluid, strong, and beautifully performed. To end the piece, the full group advances downstage in a gentle curtsey to the audience before the receding into the dark, apparitions disappearing and ending our dream.