According to their website, Diavolo “is a creative movement production company. Using evocative, custom-made architectural structures, Diavolo explores innovation and movement in unique live, cinematic, and multimedia experiences.” Evocative indeed. There is more about the current show “Escape”. “ESCAPE is a visceral and intimate live show following a group of humans as they struggle to break free from the chaotic world we live in now. With resiliency and collaboration, they escape from their ordinary lives into a surreal landscape of infinite possibilities. Along with DIAVOLO’s signature movement aesthetic, ESCAPE features a collection of the company’s most famous architectural structures; each evoking a story unique to its design”. Although this statement is true, it is also a tad vague. What was so striking about this show was the level of physical intensity called upon to execute and perform it. The imagery and layering of the visuals created a two-hour metaphor for the world we live in today and the idea that we can escape from it. More on that later.
Diavolo – Architecture In Motion’s “Escape” by Jacques Heim – Photo by Cheryl Mann.
Upon entering the lot in front of the studio (L’Espace Diavolo), there was a bar, and a counter of merchandise set up with a “Meet & Greet” wall displaying the somewhat demonic head serving as logo for the company Diavolo. ALL proceeds from this run of the show will go towards benefitting Diavolo’s Educational and Military Veterans’ Programming. This is an excellent cause and the crowd agreed by partaking of the amenities on offer. Once inside we were treated to a display of various structures standing by ready for use. Some of these are huge metal contraptions but are more or less easily moved by the company of dancers. I think they must be made of light weight metal.
The Founder and Creative Director of Diavolo, Jacques Heim welcomed us to the show and outlined how it would run. There are only three rows of seats in the studio putting the audience within spitting distance of the performers and by the nature of the work, dangerous proximity. We waited until all had returned from the restrooms as there was no space onstage to go while the dancers were performing. Heim is very charismatic and parlayed a sense of excitement to the audience. He was forthcoming and relaxed and remarked upon the safety of the audience and his dancers as his first priority. This was well done and later became all too apparent during particular moments in the show where a misstep by an audience member or performer could spell disaster. Thankfully, the performers were extremely well rehearsed and aware of every inch of the space as well as precise in their movements and energy. All of this was addressed beforehand by Heim and the evening came off with nothing less than a spectacular showing made possible by his intrepid performers and his own imagination.
Diavolo – Architecture In Motion’s “Escape” by Jacques Heim – Photo by Cheryl Mann.
To say that the show was engaging, or spectacular is an understatement in that the simple title of the show belies the subtle complexities of its application to humanity’s predicament at the present time. This aspect of the evenings chronology of events was very much appreciated by me. To begin, there is a large door frame on rollers downstage center and the performers all enter the stage through this door where they approach a massive metal square armature. I say armature because the structure supports human bodies as its material rather than clay. This door may act as a metaphor for us to go through in order to witness our history as a species so we understand where we came from, what we are capable of, and where we may want to go in the future. Or not – that is what I saw. There is a solo female lying down in the center with a downspot on her and we see an embryo, a lone human, someone trapped, someone alone, everyman alone. She wakes up and explores her cage, the limits to her environment, as Homo Erectus and Homo Sapiens have done to such astonishing success. She is joined by others (the population explosion?) and they all do the same. There is jostling and discomfort and split-second timing in the choreography. At times they all pick up the entire square structure with her on it and move it! This is a powerful image as her world tilts and shifts and yet she acclimates to the changes in longitude and latitude and survives. Chalk one up for Homo Sapiens who out-cooperate the other branches of the family tree.
Diavolo – Architecture In Motion’s “Escape” by Jacques Heim – Photo by Cheryl Mann.
Then there is a transition to Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall”. With this a solo man enters carrying a small grey box which encases him. He struggles within the confines of his grey box with his work, his life, his self-identity, his world. He is then met with fifteen other people in their own grey boxes all the same, with the same limitations and fears. They display frustration, angst, anger and incomprehension at their plight. We have moved further along on the timeline of humanity from Homo Sapiens spreading out upon the earth to class society, conscription of humans, slavery, mechanized workforce, the Industrial Revolution and pre-union. The costumes here are drab grey shirts with numbers on the backs. No longer individuals but simply cogs in a wheel or masses assembled for conflict. This theme develops into soulless corporate cubicles and classrooms where the indoctrination of the multitude is universally accepted until the original solo man stands and questions it a’la “Norma Rae”. All hell breaks loose as they revolt against the encapsulation of the human spirit. And at this point we see how conflict, aggression, and the aspect of global war, any war, encloses individuals in their own little box of truncated senses and PTSD.
We transition to movable stairs. A few different sets of them enter and spin and are played with until they come together to create a locomotive facing the audience head-on. Enter the age of technology where trains, planes and automobiles are meant to help us escape the drudgery of our pre-industrial lives. Now we can commute to work, pick up the kids, be in a different country in hours, get everywhere faster! Humanity is unity. And yet, through the choreographic images displayed by Heim and his dancers this is not the case. Instead, the train takes on a menacing form where humans rush to catch it, are regurgitated from it unceremoniously onto the ground where they recover only to rush off again. The hamster wheel of travel gets us no closer to freedom but only introduces a new way for humans to trap themselves into habitual routine. And all the while the powerful performers are throwing themselves at the machine. Their bodies glistening in sweat as sure as the people who once fed the engines coal by the shovelful. The physicality of the dancers accelerates at the same rate as their desire for escape from all manmade entrapments, ironically produced to help ease their lives.
Diavolo – Architecture In Motion’s “Escape” by Jacques Heim – Photo by Cheryl Mann.
One of the last structures utilized was what looked like the bow of a ship, with a wooden deck to stand on and a railing on each side with the upstage and downstage sides entirely open. There was a lovely foursome who set the deck to motion back and forth as if navigating waves at sea. Their choreography was melodic and in time with the pitch of the structure allowing the performers to jump and fall in time with the pendulous swing of the deck. It became almost hypnotic at one point, lulling me into the same rhythm. When the rest of the company joined in it became a riot of flying bodies both commanding and succumbing to the laws of physics called upon by the structure. The physical cacophony of weight, catch and release was fantastic to see. At the end, a lone female has a solo on the ships edge, almost falling from it into oblivion but grabbing the railing and then hoisting herself up again in an exquisite agony of muscular exertion. She reaches out and then disappears down the other side of the rolling deck. We do not know if she survived the maelstrom or was thrown and drowned in the emptiness. Is the boat the world we have created for ourselves and the dancer a metaphor for all of us trying to navigate it and survive? Was she able to escape her fate as human and realize the full potential of her evolution? Could she escape her nature, her fear, her prejudices, her desires? Or was there never any escape possible?
There is another, more esoteric aspect to Heim’s choreography and this show in particular. It is an underlying yet obvious point to the choreography. It consists in the freedom of movement possible within the parameters of the human body. The whole is a lesson in physics. How our bodies have adapted to the gravity of this planet. On display is how we use the laws of momentum, inertia and gravitational force in our everyday lives to navigate this reality and also on a larger scale to escape the planets’ gravitational pull entirely. I was reminded of Leonardo DaVinci’s “Vitruvian Man” quartered and understood through the various angles and quadrants that the human body can utilize in its movement. Each dancer here is a Vitruvian Man or Woman – what is important is the Humanity of the individual, cooperating with others in order to get free. Free from all that inhibits, free from defining limitations imposed by self and others, and finally free of gravity in a very real sense. We witness unbridled joy at bodies flying through the air, released from the hold the planet has on them only to be returned to Earth compliments of others there to catch, secure and help them.
Diavolo – Architecture In Motion’s “Escape” by Jacques Heim – Photo by Cheryl Mann.
Which brings me to another theme throughout the evening that is everywhere expressed by the very nature of the choreography. Trust. This is a group of dancers who trust each other and are in constant communication throughout the show. Truly, if someone misses a mark great injury may prevail. Yet, I was at ease and entirely comfortable watching the razor’s edge precision of their bodies missing each other by inches if not centimeters. I was amazed at the great leaps through empty space that were done without hesitation. And finally, I was giddy with the joy of launching oneself with abandonment into the abyss only to be retrieved and absorbed back into the group, the tribe, the clan of humanity. After witnessing this show, I am glad to belong to it.
The phenomenal performers were: Chris Borrero, Gabriela Collazo, Kate Dougherty (Associate Choreographer), Aaron Franco, Caribay Franke (Project & Production Manager), Chadwick Gaspard, Emily Grable, Simon Larson Greenberg (Sound Designer & Media Specialist), Evan Hernandez, Steven Jasso (Technical Director), Liana Kulchin, Jarel Lewis, Dae Marcuz, Abraham Meisel, Mia Moraru, Kittrell Poe, Isabella Reveles, Chloe Reynolds, Co-eL Rodriguez (Education Programs Director), Ryan Ruiz (Assistant Choreographer & Rehearsal Director), Claire Schick, Emrose Seidenberg, Nick Signor, Allison Slamann, Matt Wagner.
ESCAPE runs through November 23, 2025 at 8:00 pm. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit the Diavolo – Architecture In Motion website.
Written by Brian Fretté for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Diavolo – Architecture In Motion’s “Escape” by Jacques Heim – Photo by Cheryl Mann.
