Award winning Mexican multidisciplinary artist Stephanie García is the Co-founder and Co-director of Punto de Inflexión along with visual, installation, and conceptual artist Peter Hay. On Friday, January 26, 2024, Punto de Inflexión presented 3X3 on the third weekend of Dance at the Odyssey, curated by Barbara Mueller-Wittman. This evening-length work beautifully fused together three separate dances and a film without any pauses, causing it feel like one continuous work. This was aided by seamless transitions from one piece to the next and by incorporating essential props into each piece. For this reviewer, the use of props sometimes overpowered the dancing.
One very positive element of 3X3 was that the entire evening was performed with the minimum of light, primarily white light generated by portable and hanging flood lamps against a black background, walls and floor. Hanging from lines of wire were two large plastic sheets that became both a screen for film projections as well as props used by the performers. The totality of white light, black backgrounds and gray plastic produced a solemness to each work and an overwhelming feeling of undefined anxiety.
Punto de Inflexión – Abrirse el Cuerpo – Photo by Todd Collins.
Abrirse el Cuerpo (Open the Body) opened with a single white animated figure slowly walking across the back wall and plastic material before breaking apart into three figures. These were eventually replaced by three women. Abrirse el Cuerpo involved the most straight-out dancing, which was energetic, grounded and wonderfully performed by Leslie Jara, Josephine Kolbeck, and Angeline Bourgeault. The confusion began when the three started working with gray brick-sized blocks. The bricks were slid across the space, piled up and then knocked over, and sat on. This was a great use of props but their meaning to the work was lost on me.
Punto de Inflexión – Abrirse el Cuerpo – Photo by Todd Collins.
One plastic sheet located upstage right became a screen for projecting a movement sequence that was performed live at the same time behind a plastic sheet hanging on a diagonal stage left. The two were just out of sync and almost invisible, which oddly enough added to its strength like thoughts or emotions barely definable.
The props and videos were by Stephanie García; Poem by Mikeas Sánchez.
Punto de Inflexión – Angeline Bourgeault in “Abrirse el Cuerpo” – Photo by Todd Collins.
800 South was a powerful dance on film set against a white warehouse building with, according to the film’s credits, the faces of victims of violence painted along its sides. Cars and trucks drove past as García stood, danced or ran along the narrow center island of the street that ran alongside the building or on its sidewalk, giving the audience a sense of danger to her safety.
A tent appears nearby and then eventually the camera pans along the building, around the corner and down the street, revealing more and more homeless people living in tents and in front of the ever increasing number of faces of the fallen painted by artists in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Idea, Editing & Performer: Stephanie García; Videographer: Peter Hay.
Punto de Inflexión – Leslie Jara in “Abrirse el Cuerpo” – Photo by Todd Collins.
The program notes for Incandescent stated that it was “a solo researching embodied contradiction that guides the complex imbalance life shows us from time to time.” Though performed with great dedication and control while moving across the gray bricks arranged in a circle, I found myself focusing primarily on García’s technique and strength. .
Concept and performer: Stephanie García; Video: Peter Hay; Music: Alicia Sara Ott, Perilla, Ulla, Río Vasudeva, Anna Homler and Moshier.
Punto de Inflexión – Josephine Kolbeck in “downcast” – Photo by Todd Collins.
The evening ended with a very strong work titled downcast performed by Jara, Kolbeck, and Bourgeault underneath a single hanging flood lamp. The lamp was very close in proximity to the front row of the audience and the piece was expertly choreographed and performed. The performers were constantly drawn to the light like moths to a flame; unable to escape its allure. The three women were also drawn together by some invisible need and when they ventured out into the darkness that surrounded them, they always returned to stand and move directly beneath the light.
Concept and Choreography by Stephanie García; Movement design: Kellie St. Pierre, Joshua Yago Mora and García; Music: krill.minima, Alessandro Cortini & Loscil.
Punto de Inflexión – Angeline Bourgeault in “downcast” – Photo by Todd Collins.
downcast and 800 South were the strongest works of 3X3 and I longed to see more full-out dancing by each of the more than capable performers.
Dance at the Odyssey continues for the next three weekends presenting Nomad, Created by Goblin Party, February 2-4; how I became kinder, and kinder, Created by Azuki Umeda, February 9-11; and The Un9Double), Created by Galiana&Nikolchev’s The Useless Room, February 16-18. Performances on Friday and Saturday are at 8PM; on Sundays at 2PM.
For more information about The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, Dance at the Odyssey and to purchase tickets, please visit their website.
For more information about Punto de Inflexión and Stephanie García, please visit their website.
Written by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Punto de Inflexión – (L-R) Leslie Jara, Angeline Bourgeault, and Josephine Kolbeck in Abrirse el Cuerpo – Photo by Todd Collins.
