The evening was introduced by Artistic Director Donna Sternberg who explained that “Awe and Wonder” refers to the collaboration between four choreographers well-met with four scientists who have various specialties. The fruits of these couplings were revealed onstage last night. Sternberg made a point of explaining that the choreography does not necessarily reflect the scientist’s specialty verbatim. From the program notes: “Four choreographers create new dances inspired by their conversations with four scientists. One scientist is paired with one choreographer, dialoguing about the scientist’s field of study, which then becomes the starting point for the choreographer. The resulting dance is informed by science in some way rather than a literal demonstration of the science.” She said, “If you are thinking that you will understand the choreography you see onstage, you will be frustrated.” She was right.
Awe and Wonder -Tai White in his “Clean Energy?” – Photo by Sarah Catania.
The first piece was “Clean Energy?,” a collaboration between choreographer Tai White and scientist Aiichiro Nakano. Nakano is a Professor of Computer Science with joint appointments in Physics & Astronomy, Quantitative & Computational Biology, and Collaboratory for Advanced Computing and Simulations at University of Southern California. This piece utilized three people to portray the journey of an electron and two atoms. We witnessed the electron bringing together the two atoms by holding their hands and weaving in and out of each other. Video artist Ken-Ishi Nomura put together interesting graphics on a large screen behind the performers. This helped to portray photosynthesis and a few other exchanges particular to the electron. Thankfully, during the talkback at the end of the show some of the collaborative process was clarified making the choreography more comprehensible after the fact. White saw power dynamics in the behavior of atomic energy and so added that aspect to the work. The performers were Tai White, Teaya Smith, and Aryah McVay who had some beautiful movement qualities.
Awe and Wonder – Belen Garibaldi, Imari Rose, Preena Chand and Wendolin Ortiz in :To Look, Feel, Be” by Aubre Hill – Photo by Sarah Catania.
The second piece was “To Look, Feel, Be,” a collaboration between choreographer Aubre Hill and scientist Yajie Zhao. Zhao is a Research Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Southern California. This consisted of four women in white shifts or nightgowns moving with and for each other. They also used flashlights to illuminate some sections of their movement. Their ports-de-bras was lovely and their camaraderie during the piece infectious. Performers were Belen Garibaldi, Imari Rose, Preena Chand, and Wendolin Ortiz from the Qabila Dance Company.
The third piece was “translAltion,” a collaboration between choreographer Wilfried Souly and scientist Shrikanth Narayanan. Narayanan is a Professor in the Signal and Image Processing Institute of USC’s Ming Hsieh Electrical & Computer Engineering department. This work featured a solo performer, Xochitl Loco in a black suit moving on a diagonal interacting with a white length of material, chiffon I think it was. The program notes state: “translAItion is a solo dance piece that investigates the intricacies of embodied knowledge as a means to communicate. The performer develops a unique dance vocabulary as a political act to discuss themes such as Vulnerability, Accountability and Resilience in the use of Artificial Intelligence”. At one point there was a long silence after one of the songs when I saw Wilfried Souly jump out of his chair in the audience and run to the tech booth in the back of the house. After a short interval music began to play and it seemed that Loco had to catch up to a missed cue. This was done without too much awkwardness. I think that the ‘Vulnerability, Accountability, and Resilience’ had to do with the bolt of white chiffon as Loco became wrapped up in it and then fell down when it enclosed and tightened around the legs and feet, twice.
Awe and Wonder – Rebecca Aguilar, Alexandria Paige Amstutz, Robert Huerta, Anna Kazwell, Allyssa Milligan in “Maya” by Donna Sternberg – Photo by Sarah Catania.
The fourth piece was “Maya,” a collaboration between choreographer Donna Sternberg and scientist David Nelson. Nelson is the Director of Mixed Reality Research and Development at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies. In the talkback panel after the show Sternberg detailed how she arrived at the movement by giving the dancers a task. She asked them what if you could not tell if you were real or not? They created phrases based on that assumption and then music was added afterward. The dancers began by speaking gibberish to each other in the form of directions. We were supposed to not be able to tell if this was a real, legitimate language we were hearing or not. Thankfully, I grew up listening to Sid Caesar speak gibberish in Italian, French, German and Japanese dialect and therefore knew right away that it was not real language. There was also video utilized in order to break up what our senses were gathering in so that we also could ask what was real and what was not. The dancers onstage would be moving and then stop while the dancers in the video on the big screen would continue the movement phrase and then stop so that the dancers onstage could resume at the breaking off point. I do not know what constitutes the nature of reality for Nelson and Sternberg but I felt the dancers physically onstage in front of me were more real than their counterparts on the big screen. The video/digital artist was Michael J. Masucci and his work was as ‘real’ as anyone onstage. Dancers: Rebecca Aguilar, Alexandria Paige Amstutz, Robert Huerta, Anna Kazwell, Allyssa Milligan.
For more information about Donna Sternberg & Dancers, please visit their website.
Written by Brian Fretté for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Awe and Wonder – Xochitl Loco in “translAltion” by Wilfried Souly – Photo by Sarah Catania.
