Until the 2014 release of the British historical drama film The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch, most Americans were not aware of the English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and theoretical biologist Alan Turing (1912-1954). He was, however, to Laura Karlin, Founder and Artistic Director of Invertigo Dance Theatre, and for the past several years Karlin has dreamed about, researched, and worked on Formulae & Fairy Tales which had its World Premiere on September 13, 2019 at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica.
Those years of hard work by Karlin, aided by her very talented dance artist company members have paid off two-fold. Karlin presented sections of this work over the past couple of years in different venues. Giving a work-in-progress as much stage time had the potential of over-exposure. Not so with this work. Karlin has taken all the feed back from her colleagues, friends and reviewers like me; shuffled the puzzle pieces around; edited, tossed out and created new material into a very wonderful, beautiful and often heart-wrenching work of art. Formulae & Fairy Tales is dance theatre at its finest.
Turing is considered by many to be the father of theoretical computer science and Artificial Intelligence. He and his genius played a pivotal role in cracking intercepted coded messages to enable the World Allies to defeat Hitler’s army in many crucial battles. Victories that led to helping win the war. Because of the secrecy, Turing’s work was not known for decades and his career was prematurely ended because of his homosexuality and Britain’s archaic obscenity laws. He was chemically castrated, shunned and eventually committed suicide by biting into an apple laced with cyanide at the age of 52.
Karlin opens the work with dialogue written by her and performed by Cody Brunelle-Potter. “This piece has no beginning” She/he explains. “It ends where it began, in the middle.” It is a truth that many artists face; where to start a work and how to end it. Karlin found a wonderful solution to this dilemma, and in doing so, showed us the life, struggles, accomplishments and, the unsung heroic acts of Alan Turing.
Turing was fascinated by the Walt Disney 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; his favorite character being the wicked Queen/Witch. A ruby red apple appears in almost every scene of Karlin’s Formulae & Fairy Tales to not only represent the poisoned apple that Snow White fell victim to, that Turing took his own life biting into, but also Eve’s “sin” that caused she and Adam to be exiled from the Garden of Eden. It symbolized certain societies’ idea of sin, forbidden love and death.
A long researcher and supporter of LGBTQ rights, Karlin twice re-enacted moments of the scene where Prince Charming wakens Snow White, who has been fallen into a deep sleep after biting into the Witch’s poisoned apple. Unlike the movie, in version one both the prince and Snow White were female, and in the second both were male.
Incorporating written word, video projections and her signature acrobatic-like movement that seamlessly fuses with modern and contemporary dance, Karlin transports the audience back and forward through time, in and out of Turing’s mathematic mind and visualized the difficulties he faced growing up an outsider.
Turing designed a test, called the Turing Test, to determine if a person was a human or a robot. Karlin brought an audience member up onstage to take the test, and after a series of questions, the scientist stated, “You are clearly a human!” Later the same test was given to computers with very different results.
The Scenic and Video Designs by NightLight Labs combined with the brilliant Lighting Design by R.S. Buck and beautiful costumes by Rosalida Medina, brought to life the complexities of Turing’s early computers using a combination of ones and zeros. The projections demonstrated how his machine shifted through the cryptic messages to decode them. The answers by the artificial intelligence were visually spelled out as we listened to them being spoken.
Karlin’s choreography in collaboration with the dance artists and composers Toby Karlin, Julia Kent, and Eric Mason, stroke a wonderful balance between movement, dancing, tumbling and acting. Her company members appeared fearless; flying through the air with a complete trust that they would be caught and safely placed onto the floor. They seamlessly glided in and out of the complex lifts, never appearing to miss a movement phrase along the way.
Brunelle-Potter was extraordinary as the Narrator and as the numbers obsessed Turing. Corina Kinnear shone throughout, but especially so during her solos. The charmingly whimsical Hyosun Choi and the stately but passionate Jessica Dunn brought great depth to the awaking duet, one that expressed the film’s meaning and a sexual awaking for so many; and Dominique McDougal’s aloof elegance was wonderful to watch.
The final duet, performed with great passion and clarity by Spencer Jensen and Luke Dakota Zender, was not only beautifully constructed, sensual and romantic, but where Karlin positioned it gave the duet a complexity and depth that it did not see or feel in earlier viewings. Here, at the end of the work, we knew Turing’s history, his struggles with homosexuality and the horrible punishment he endured for simply falling in love with someone of the same sex. We knew and felt that the apple between the two men’s mouths represented the forbidden fruit of gay love, and the deadly kiss of a poisoned apple.
If the chance arises for you to see Invertigo Dance Theatre perform Formulae & Fairy Tales, I highly recommend that you make use of that opportunity.
Written by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle, September 16, 2019.
To visit the Invertigo Dance Theatre website, click here.
To view The Broad Stage performance schedule, click here.
Featured image: Invertigo Dance Theatre – Formulae & Fairy Tales – Photo: George Simian
