On Saturday, August 29th at the Kirk Douglas Theater, “FOG” was a split bill between ate9 and Jacob Jonas The Company. The show featured live music and explored dystopian themes using impressive and physical movement vocabulary.
Billy Barry and Omri Drumlevich in “Soon After ” – Photo by Jobel Medina.
First up was ate9’s world premiere of “Soon After,” choreographed by Danielle Agami, who also led the strong cast on stage. Agami, along with Billy Barry, Omri Drumlevich, and Gianni Notarnicola were impressive performers who brought the piece to life with their physical acting. The dancers moved seamlessly between pedestrian movements, feats of technique, and endearingly bizarre steps. Agami and her dancers all have backgrounds in Gaga, a movement style that comes from Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company, and I could see this influence in their full-bodied commitment to each step and detail.
Danielle Agami and Omri Drumlevich in “Soon After” – Photo by Jobel Medina
The set for “Soon After” featured benches, trunks, tables, clothing racks, and a giant mirror. As the audience settled, I noticed that the dancers had started to exist in this crafted world, moving around and getting into their characters. When the lights dimmed and the piece began, we were immediately thrust into the story and had to figure out along the way who the characters might be and what was happening. The piece seemed to take place in a dystopian future and explored dynamics within a family. Agami’s character as the mother figure explored themes of body image and consumption as she did crunches on the floor and later crawled across with her head in her purse, leaving a trail of money. Notarnicola’s childlike character lived in the moment, playing and showing off impressive skills for the audience. Barry’s mysterious character was intriguing and striking. The press release mentioned an “angel” character, and his powerful presence onstage and white attire seemed to allude to this role. At first, I was less sure about what Drumlevich’s character was going through; he seemed to be organizing cans of food and becoming increasingly frustrated with the others. As I recognized his role as a father figure, it felt like his journey commented on the pressure on men to provide for and protect their family. Costume changes throughout seemed to represent shifts in time as well as slipping in and out of various identities and relational roles.
Danielle Agami in her work “Soon After” – Photo by Jobel Medina.
Much of the choreography was individual, but a few notable group sections included a slinky intertwined duet between Agami and Drumlevich, as well as a strong unison section to a more rhythmic section of the music where the cast showed off synchronicity and long, clean lines. I enjoyed the way the choreography would use small details of the wrists or fingers and then surprise us with larger pops of more technical movement. Full body quivers or undulations and little bourrées of the feet were recurring motifs. Live music was played using a sound board by Yuka Honda who sat facing the dancers from a corner. It felt like there was a dialogue between the musician and dancers: the dancers seemed to organically react to changes in music and the musician may have also been taking cues from the dancers.
Danielle Agami and Omri Drumlevich in “Soon After” – Photo by Jobel Medina.
One of the strengths of the piece was its self-awareness in playing with camp. At one moment, two of the dancers entered the stage with their hands reaching through giant rectangular pool floats, like life-sized animatronic pop tarts. One of the pool floats was solid white, while the other had a colorful swirly pattern on it. At that moment, the pattern just seemed too ridiculous amidst the already ridiculous scene.. Moments later, as if reading my mind, dancers entered with two more inflatables: a hotdog and a Liquid Death branded float. It felt like they knew what I was thinking and were responding: “You think that’s ridiculous? Check this out!” Despite a darker, and sometimes impendingly real, theme of life in a dystopian world, “Soon After” was playful and used humor well. Agami’s strong cast brought the story to life with their characters, and her vision was well-executed.
Jacob Jonas The Company – Alexa Donnelly, Paulina Donnelly, Jarrett Yeary in GRIP – Photo by Joshua Geyer.
After an intermission, the space was transformed. Instead of the clutter of set pieces, Jacob Jonas’ design for “Grip” was more simple, featuring a large glowing orb hanging above the stage, a chair, a table with a fish tank, and fog. “Grip” was an intensely physical work that played percussive sounds, patterns, and relationships.
Jacob’s impressive dancers, Alexa Donnelly, Paulina Donnelly, and Jarrett Yeary, pushed their bodies to the extreme as they blended acrobatics and breakdance with contemporary dancing, often throwing themselves repeatedly at the ground. The live music for this piece included a cello, as well as effects and music from a soundboard, performed by Topu Lyo and Mike Thies of Live Footage. The dancers’ percussive slaps added another layer to the soundscore.
Jacob Jonas The Company – Alexa Donnelly, Paulina Donnelly, Jarrett Yeary in GRIP – Photo by Joshua Geyer.
The opening section, a duet between the Donnelly twins, was incredibly well-structured choreographically. Jonas started with one dancer doing a phrase involving backbends and slamming to the floor. Next the dancers performed it together, and from there the play with variations on the theme continued. The dancers would perform the recognizable pieces of the phrase as duet actions – facing each other and using one movement to push the other into a step, for example. The recurring bridge reappeared in one moment as a two person shape where the dancers overlapped on the floor and lifted into a larger bridge.
Jonas used a finite movement vocabulary extremely well to play with the possibilities that can come from a short phrase. He would repeat an action or a few actions and then break the pattern unexpectedly, either with a different movement or an unexpected tempo shift to the percussive sounds. Especially as the dancers interacted in pairs, and later as a trio, they would move in and out of a connection point, exploring how they could fit together. The partnerwork and groupwork often featured manipulating or controlling each other. This appeared too in solo sections, with the dancers moving themselves as if their separate limbs were different interacting pieces.
Jacob Jonas The Company – Alexa Donnelly, Paulina Donnelly, Jarrett Yeary in GRIP – Photo by Joshua Geyer.
The choreographic structure was less strong in solo sections. Yeary blew away the audience with a breakdance influenced solo, but some of the movements were so powerful that the preparations and endings couldn’t really blend nicely into phrases.
Jonas is known for pushing the boundaries of what can be included in concert dance vocabulary, and this piece certainly played with that. As the piece neared its end and the dancers continued to throw and bend themselves wildly, I was struck by how normal these daring actions felt after watching them so much. That in itself felt like an interesting theme: how things can so quickly feel unremarkable, in dance but also how we can acclimatize to extreme situations in life. Jonas’ work functioned best as an abstract exploration. I enjoyed how he developed various relationships in pairs and then played with how three can fit together.
Jacob Jonas The Company – Alexa Donnelly, Paulina Donnelly, Jarrett Yeary in GRIP – Photo by Joshua Geyer.
At the start of the piece, a poet, Nathan Birnbaum, read three short poetry excerpts. It did not add much for me and almost made me feel like I missed some deeper literal meaning, rather than feeling satisfied with the abstract ideas explored. The poems may have been important to the process for the dancers and choreographer but didn’t feel necessary in the live performance.
In vastly different ways, Jonas and Agami presented physical works that explored habits and patterns, as well as how individuals may react to pressure or unknown situations. Agami’s physicality came through in the subtle details and full-bodied character performances, while Jonas’ was powerful and daring. I was engaged and invested throughout both acts, immersed in the imagined worlds of ate9 and Jacob Jonas the Company.
To learn more about ate9, please visit their website.
To learn more about Jacob Jonas The Company, please visit their website.
For more information about the Kirk Douglas Theatre, please visit its website.
Written by Rachel Turner for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Jacob Jonas The Company – Alexa Donnelly, Paulina Donnelly, Jarrett Yeary in GRIP – Photo by Joshua Geyer.
