Dance at the Odyssey has been a staple of Los Angeles dance since it was established in 2017, curated by Barbara Müller-Wittmann as a platform for local contemporary dance artists. This summer, as the festival comes up on its tenth year in motion, the three-week endeavor closed with Sunday’s short-and-sweet split bill, featuring Tanz Tanz Revolution’s Sonder and Katie Tuchi’s Doubting Thomas.
Sonder, choreographed by Tanz Tanz Revolution co-founders Emily O’Rourke and Eva Silverton, explored the intricate lives of strangers as they passed and intertwined. Dancers Niketa Kou, Elena Bruce, and Maria Ewald began to intersect as they walked through city sounds, Kou seamlessly shifting in and out of thoughtful floorwork.
Tanz Tanz Revolution – Photo by Emily O’Rourke.
Throughout the work, the dancers would find shared moments in vignettes that magnified fleeting complexities, moments where their lives met and slowed into breath and touch. Bruce and Ewald were drawn together in a duet, carving deliberate gestures out of stillness.
Each of the dancers had such a beautiful understanding of their floorwork and weight distribution that harmonized with O’Rourke and Silverton’s choreography, making pathways clear and level changes effortless. The care between the three of them echoed a kinship that made their connections feel tender, each meeting an indication of something deeper within.
Because of the festival’s quick turnaround, this was the only performance of Sonder for the foreseeable future, but I would love to see this work get more time to settle in and develop — I wanted to explore each of the characters’ individual worlds, to dig into dynamics and intention and glimpse further into their lives.
Tanz Tanz Revolution – Photo by Natasha Tilly.
Katie Tuchi’s Doubting Thomas carried an informal, experimental tone that both set me at ease and piqued my curiosity. Set to audio from what sounded like an old British sitcom, Tuchi’s full-body movement style was almost tensile as they dipped in and around a stool and a bench, setting Jenga blocks up like dominoes.
The work investigated the difference between seeing and believing, proclaiming “the preciousness of question and faith” and how they inform communication and understanding. Tuchi would find the floor and bounce back up again, trying and re-trying, setting themselves up to find specificity.
Their vocabulary was athletic, grounded — sporting a contemporary sheen but also a familiarity with the floor that implied breaking influences. They were surprising and spontaneous but always in control, using gravity like paint on a canvas. I almost hoped they would break the fourth wall and let us in on the experiment.
Lighting and stage management for both works was done by Katelan Braymer, who made magic with her use of light and shadow. Though tonally unique, both works left me with a new appreciation for life’s immediate, fleeting nature: a reminder to be present as our paths cross each other’s, even if just for a moment.
For more information about the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, please visit their website.
To learn more about Tanz Tanz Revolution, please visit their Instagram page.
This article was edited 7/9/26 to correct photos.
Written by Celine Kiner for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Tanz Tanz Revolution – Photo by Emily O’Rourke.
