Prairie Dance Circuit
To cap off the fluid festival, Dancers Studio West hosted the Prairie Dance Circuit on October 23rd and 24th. The first performance, Thessalonike, was a striking example of a body in physical exertion. Hillary Maxwell’s choreography, in conjunction with costume, drew attention to the musculature and bones of Jennifer Jaspar’s body. It was very easy to appreciate the extreme physical effort that Jaspar was putting into the piece.
Next up was Raena Waddell (choreographer and performer) and Vincent Forcier. Their piece, The Surrender Method, played with risk, silhouette, contact and more, to achieve a work that was poignant and emotional. While the dancing on its own was significant, when it was paired with such beautiful and original lighting it truly became remarkable.
After a brief intermission, Johanna Riley and Sarah Roche began setting up for their performance of Andrew Milne’s Map. The piece was approached in a very casual manner and was reminiscent of an instillation art piece. The performance animated a space, and objects, that are conventionally ignored. Map was a light, but striking piece that bridged the gaps between performer and stagehand, physical and verbal, and object and human.
To finish the evening, Hillary Maxwell drew the audience into her performance of Jason Stroh’s Bang/Crunch. So much of the work we see in movement arts focuses on the body and while Maxwell exerted hers in this piece, she also took time to explore the effect that the face has on a piece. This work addressed the human as a whole and because of this, was powerfully stunning.