After 12 years, Danielle Agami is ready to leave Los Angeles. There are a lot of factors, she says, pacing the stage as she gestures toward a few topics that are on her mind. She’s letting us see her — a vulnerable and chaotic parting gift to the community that has come to see her off. She calls it “sharing pieces of her cluttered mind,” and she’s accompanied by cellist and frequent collaborator Isaiah Gage.
The suddenness of her big move to Europe, the impetus for this work, contributes a spontaneity to the space at Live Arts. It’s an exclusive window right before the dance becomes “clean,” where you can see talent and inspiration and ideas bubbling up into something new. And in that life, there’s a glimpse of the creative spirit that drove her company, Ate9, for so long.
Danielle Agami – Ate9 dANCE cOMPANY – Photo courtesy of the company
Agami is proud of the two generations that moved through Ate9; she says now’s the time to go, when she would not be leaving them in the middle of the process. They are blossoming now. She references the opening number — choreographed by Jordan Lovestrand and Montay Romero, with music by Ori Lichtik — beaming.
Lovestrand and Romero are joined by Christopher Hahn in performance for a gorgeous trio of softness and effort. Agami has passed onto their work a malleability in the hip, knee, and ankle joints, in which they find stillness and current. Their style is confrontational, deeply rooted in the ground but with punctuated energy that activates audience attention.
Agami takes the stage afterward, dancing around her furniture as Gage plays along. She pushes audience boundaries with familiarity, expressing her gratitude for the relationship: “we meet and you’re never quite what they say you are.” The sound is chopped into interludes by Gage’s cello, recorded music, Agami’s voice; it oscillates between moods, between moments. Lighting design by Claire Chrzan and Jackson Funke is similarly evocative of her “scattered mind,” a delightful map of interruptions. As she moves through short idea phases and phrases, her mastery of creating and breaking tension shows.
World premiere of “Joy”, choreographed by Danielle Agami (Starting in circle from far left going back) Jobel Medina, Paige Amicon, Jordyn Santiago , Bronte Mayo, Evan Sagadencky, Montay Romero, Danielle Agami, Chris Hahn, Nat Wilson (middle), Isaiah Gage (on cello) – Photo by Rob LaTour / Shutterstock
She calls for audience volunteers — “someone not too boring.” She dances alone on a chair, inventing shapes and contemplating her own questions, challenging the audience to consider them too. I will not spoil the surprise, but a special guest joins her to show off a sort of hidden talent, in a frenzied moment of ecstatic connection.
And in the moments she shares with the dancers of Ate9, there is a real tenderness attached to their usual virtuosic abandon. Together, they capture their process onstage before the audience and then set it free with a wink and a wave.
Agami and friends perform Off, to a good start twice more at Live Arts, May 26 and 27. Stop by if you have yet to bid her farewell.
For more information about Ate9, please visit their website.
Written by Celine Kiner for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Ate9 Artistic Director Danielle Agami – Photo by Scott Simock
