Above: the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC
Friday October 25th, 2013 - My association with Robin Becker's dancework INTO SUNLIGHT, set during the Vietnam War era, stretches back to November 2010 when my dancer/friend Paul (Oisin) Monaghan suggested that Kokyat and I drop in to one of Robin's rehearsals. I was immediately drawn to Robin's movement style and to the theme of the work.
Inspired by Pulitzer prize-winning author David Maraniss's book THEY MARCHED INTO SUNLIGHT, Robin Becker has crafted an hour-long dancework with a musical score by Chris Lastovicka. While the events depicted - the ambush of a batallion of American soldiers in the Vietnam jungle and the protest against Dow Chemical at the University of Wisconsin - took place on two consecutive days in October of 1967, INTO SUNLIGHT resonates far beyond those specific incidents, and will continue to resonate as long as mankind resorts to warfare as a way of settling religious and idelogical differences - differences which will never be settled anyway.
INTO SUNLIGHT was shown in June 2011 at the 92nd Street Y; now it has come to the Florence Gould Theater. For the most part, the leading dancers have retained their roles from the original cast: Nicole Sclafani, Yoko Sagimoto-Ikezawa, Lisa Clementi, Oisin Monaghan, Chazz Fenner-McBride and Edwardo Brito. Sarah Parker is new to the Company and makes a beautiful impression.
Over the two years since I saw this dancework, the original dancers have matured: in physique, technique and stagecraft, they now give the work more nuance and complexity while maintaining their individual appeal as personalities. This developmental process has given INTO SUNLIGHT a more polished and compelling look, without sacrificing freshness. The Company are supplemented by an ensemble of nine young dancers who bring their own faces and forms into play.
Among the most vivid moments of INTO SUNLIGHT are two duets: in one, Nicole Sclafani and Paul Monaghan depict the dream a young woman had of her brother's horrific death from a massive abdominal wound - a dream which came true. Later - in the work's most poignant passage - Yoko Sugimoto-Ikezawa visits the grave of her beloved (the ensemble dancer Ricky Wenthen) where she seeks to connect with his spirit.
There is also an animated trio for three soldiers - Oisin Monaghan, Chazz Fenner-McBride and Edwardo Brito - recalling the innocent rough-housing of their younger days while dealing with the realities of serving in a war in a far-away land and watching their buddies being killed or maimed. Chazz also has a physically demanding solo depicting the moment that West Point football hero Don Holleder rushed heedlessly onto the battleground towards his vanquished comrades only to be gunned down. The three boys are distinctive stage personalities: Oisin, pale and enigmatic; Edwardo with his easy moves, handsome torso and expressive face; and Chazz, who has lost his puppy-dog boyishness and is now a muscularized young man, moving with compelling energy.
The work shifts between solemn rites and more animated emsemble passages; only near the end does the balance go off somewhat: the final two movements are perfomed mostly in slow-motion, the dancers re-arranging themselves in structures which then dissolve and re-form. As lovely as this is to watch, after a while it can't sustain us visually and our focus begins to falter. Some compression here would make for a more powerful experience as the work moves to its pensive conclusion.
But despite this concern, INTO SUNLIGHT is beautifully performed: it's a dancework that is thought-provoking and meaningful, even as civilization continues to blunder thru war after war. I congratulate Robin Becker, Chris Lastovicka, and everyone involved in bringing this work to the stage.