This past Thursday night at The Irvine Barclay Theatre, the proud Los Angeles based dance company BODYTRAFFIC performed three different pieces by three different choreographers entitled This Reminds Me of You. Appropriately titled, Founding Artistic Director Tina Finkelman Berkett began the show by giving the audience pieces of personal information on the inspiration for each choreographer’s work. And while this internationally renowned dance company has always pushed the boundaries on what dance could look like, the evening fell short on conceptual invention.
BODYTRAFFIC in “Mayday” by Trey McIntyre – Photo by Kevin Parry.
Mayday, with choreography by Trey McIntyre, used music by Buddy Holly to celebrate life and explore the joy and anguish that human existence could be cut short at any moment. The goal was to remind the audience that we must dance boldly, spread love, and live as if tomorrow is not promised. The piece felt more like a commemoration of Buddy Holly’s zest for life than a celebration of life itself. Costume designer, Karen Young, put each of the dancers in grey suits, ties, cropped at the mid-drift, and browline glasses. The dancers would re-create the beat of Holly’s greatest hit “Everyday” by slapping the palm of their hands against their stomach and rib cage, and although a clever soundbite, the costumes were otherwise distracting.
A through line for Mayday was a small red plane prop the dancers would sail through the air, pass to one another, used as a focal point, and bring on and off stage. The use of the plane was a nice pop of color in the prop design, by Cody Richardson and Rob Byerly, but too on the nose for a piece seemingly about Buddy Holly. The lighting design, by James F. Ingalls, was a well thought out and smart play by dropping the upstage curtain to create parallel lines and dimensions in colored landscapes in tandem with McIntyre‘s choreography. If the choreography presented floorwork, the lighting would take you to the floor. If the choreography explored lifts and duet partnering, the lighting would raise your eyes to the rafters.
McIntyre’s movement was expansive, dimensional, and even daring in some moments, but the piece as a whole felt widely impersonal, and did not leave the audience with room to input their own ideas of what celebrating life looks like to them.
BODYTRAFFIC IN “I Forgot The Start” by Matthew Neenan – Photo by Guzmán Rosado.
I Forgot the Start, with choreography by Matthew Neenan, was a beautiful tribute to his husband, who battled cancer and is now in remission. Starting with “In This Heart” by Sinéad O’Connor, their wedding song, the piece explores the need for hope in times of great sorrow and sadness. The choreography was musically focused, relying on particular beats or moments of a song to ignite phrase work or movement. With such an ethereal and dreamy palate to the piece, the starting and stopping of an entire song felt elementary at times; however, with the context of Neenan’s husband, the music became a necessary wash over the choreography giving it a dream-like and otherworldly effect. The dancers, dressed in baby blue mesh tops and pants by costume designer Márion Talán de la Rosa, performed beautiful duets with counterweight, and ripple effect choreography, reminiscent of trickling moments in fluid tandem together like thoughts throughout the day or memories. The piece ended with two male dancers dueting downstage left under falling snow like petals giving an impactful moment of reflection.
BODYTRAFFIC – “Bloquea’o” choreography by Joan Rodriguez – Photo by Trey McIntyre.
The last piece, Bloquea’o, with choreography by one of BODYTRAFFIC’s own company members, Joan Rodriguez, used the Cuban Missile crisis of 1962 as its backdrop. In setting up the stage, videographer, Erick Wayne, gave us projected images of 1960’s Cuba to give the audience a feeling for the time and place, while percussionist Ricky Matute set up drums downstage right for a live accompaniment. Rodriguez left his life, family, friends, and home in Cuba in order to come to America and make a new beginning for himself; and it felt like Bloquea’o was not only a tribute to his home country, but also to his new BODYTRAFFIC family who he’s been with for four seasons. It’s clear Rodriguez’s expertise in Afro-Latin contemporary dance influences his choreography, but it’s the pieces of personal movement, like the cha-cha, and Yoruba chants used that put a personal stamp on the piece. Dressed in bright silk colors, with costume design by Márion Talán de la Rosa, the tableau choreographic effect felt like a moving street mural, inviting and welcoming. The moving duets between company member Katie Garcia and Rodriguez were flavored with exciting lifts, and street movement, giving the audience a real connection to care about and expand on.
BODYTRAFFIC gave us a night of memoriam with This Reminds Me of You. While picturesque and sentimental, it also felt too literal and juvenile at moments when dance should be exploring new convictions and abstractions. With that being said, each choreographer executed their vision with BODYTRAFFIC’s technically perfect dancers. It goes without saying that the level of professionalism and talent on the stage is always admired and revered as a strength for the company.
To learn more about BODYTRAFFIC, please visit their website.
For more information about the Irvine Barclay Theatre, please visit their website.
Written by Grace Courvoisier for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: BODYTRAFFIC in I Forgot The Start by Matthew Neenan – Photo by Christopher Ash
