Above: from Jacqulyn Buglisi's The Moss Anthology: Variation #5
~ Author: Oberon
Thursday December 12th, 2019 - From September to June, my calendar literally bursts at the seams with events planned months in advance. November and early December are invariably my busiest time of the year, and I can rarely make alterations in my schedule without letting someone down. But I felt an urgent desire to experience this program by Buglisi Dance Theatre at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, and so, after a great deal of shuffling things about, I was able to attend tonight with my friend Roberto Villanueva, who has just returned from performing a solo dance program in his native Manila.
Jacqulyn Buglisi’s plea to protect and preserve the planet, The Moss Anthology: Variation #5, set to music by Emmy Award-winning composer Jeff Beal, opened the program. Danced by an ensemble of women before a stunning backdrop of nature photographs, the work reflects on the crisis of climate change and global warming. The dancers are Jessica Higgins, Jessica Sgambelluri, Greta Campo, Can Wang, Lindsay Jorgensen, Carolina Rivera Moreno, and Aoi Sato, with Blakeley White-McGuire as presiding priestess. All are clad in soft, white garments.
The initial backdrop shows the vast root-structure of an ancient, thriving tree which seems to represent mankind's roots in the natural world. It is by ignoring this connection that we have arrived in our current dire situation. On a stage beautifully lit by Jack Mehler, the women dance gorgeous flowing combinations. Sinking to the ground, they seek a direct communion with the Earth.
Now Ms. White-McGuire appears, her sense of divinity amplified by her dramatic, thrilling dancing. The women seem to swim thru air, whilst Blakeley weaves a solo among them, sure of her trajectory.
Drums signal danger: ominous indications of too much heat. The women dance in ritualistic unison. To plucked notes and wordless vocalism, a quartet of dancers try to forestall the inevitable. Photos of the scorched Earth then loom over the despairing sisterhood, with some of the women entering on their knees. Blakeley moves among the wounded, and collapses.
But there is hope for rebirth in the ballet's final moments: the photos show new greenings and the musical beat raises optimism.
This was followed by Virginie Mécène's UNUM... we are one... Set to a score created by Jacopo Baboni-Schilingi utilizing recordings of the dancers' breathing, UNUM is danced by Ben Schultz, Ricardo Barrett, and Alessio Crognale. Clad in briefs, the three god-like dancers resemble moving sculptures; Ben Schultz's superbly inked torso seems to link the ancient world to the contemporary.
Amplified, the human sounds seem rather terrifying, like rolling thunder. Folding, lifting, and entwining, the three men form an intimate brotherhood. Again, Jack Mehler's lighting was perfect, highlighting the physicality of the movement and the sheer beauty of the male form.
“In the name of the fire, and the flame, and grace”, a solo performed by the inimitable Blakeley White-McGuire, is dedicated to all people suffering from the effects of he global refugee crisis. In her movement - with a palpable wariness - the dancer depicts the nervous anxiety of a woman seeking refuge in a terrifying world. Her fast pacing - approaching and then backing away - hitching up her skirt in her panic, and with her heart racing, are so compellingly set forth by Ms. White-McGuire that we are drawn into her plight. For all the tension of the woman's situation, Blakeley paradoxically suffuses her dancing with a lyricism to mirror more melodious passages of the Max Richter score. This is a vivid and timely work, performed by one of the greatest dancers of our time.
I Love You, a duet performed by Kristine Bendul and Abdiel Jacobsen, is choreographed by Ron De Jesus to a Billie Eilish song of the same title. As the two dancers move thru partnering motifs with a ballroom feeling, the song sings of love against ones will ("I love you, and I don't want to."), a notion so familiar to me. To see Mr. Jacobsen again - since he is sorely missed at the Martha Graham Company - was one of the main reasons I came to the performance tonight. He's a peerless partner...and presence.
Ms. Buglisi's Sand, set to Philip Glasss string quartet, pays homage to the beauty of the desert and to the soil of the Earth, our home. Danced by three couples - So Young An and Ari Mayzick, Blakeley White-McGuire and Ben Schultz, Anne O'Donnell and Lloyd Knight - the choreography is well-matched to the music. Sand includes numerous duet passages, with some striking images (such as Anne O'Donnell standing on Lloyd Knight's shoulder) as well as several solos: a spacious one for So Young An and a restless one for Ms. O'Donnell. After a while, the work seemed to have said all it had to say, but still it went on; some judicious pruning might give it even greater appeal. Nonetheless, just to see these incredible dancers was its own reward.
My plan after the show was to meet and greet the dancers - so many of them are very precious to me - but a post-curtain chat kept them occupied and that decided us to head home. I did get to see the lovely Xin Ying, from Martha Graham, and to meet her mom. And before the lights went down, Roberto and I caught up with one of our favorite people on the planet: Leslie Andrea Williams.
~ Oberon