Miguel Gutierrez’s “Super Nothing” at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse last Friday night engaged silence not as a void, but as a deliberate presence. In its opening context, we hear the voice of Daniel Soto ask us to “give attention” in a series of repeated sentences and words that felt more like a conscious stream of thought or free writing on an empty stage. Phrases included, “under us something,” “soft, hard, dirty, soft,” “if you can surrender you must,” and my favorite, “pay attention builds” before any performer or mover enters the space. While the beginning of the piece may have seemed ambiguous, it was also setting up the evening with a clear and linear narrative where experience will, and did, supersede any rational logic.
“Super Nothing” by Miguel Gutierrez – Photo by Maria Baranov.
Performers Jay Carlon, Justin Faircloth, and Wendell Gray II enter the stage, with synth sounds and composition by composer Rosana Cabán. At first, it feels like everyone is lost in direction, circling around one another, in conventional choreographic structures of posing and repeating one-phrase movements. However, this section quickly becomes more complex with its dissonance and intimacy. The trio went into a series of slow floorwork, hitting poses in unison and sync before becoming more fluid and quicker in speed from one to the next. This moment, although early, became this reviewer’s favorite moment of the piece, as the dancers found negative space between one another in a contact improvisational transaction. It was mundane, and it was sublime.
Jay Carlon, Justin Faircloth, Evelyn Lilian Sanchez Narvaez and Wendell Gray II in “Super Nothing” by Miguel Gutierrez – Photo by Maria Bananov.
When fourth performer, Evelyn Lilian Sanchez Narvaez entered the stage unassumingly, the piece, which before was missing nothing, felt more complete. This is when the movers expressed subtle convulsions, under this restrained tension that followed as a throughline throughout the piece. A shake-like motif in the bodies, like an ultra-fine, and miniscule trembling consuming them from the inside out, became a repetitive heightened sensitivity to the textures of time, space, and effect. It’s the micro-politics of presence over spectacle that end up being Gutierrez’s strength for “Super Nothing.”
Instead of the traditional intermission, Gutierrez opted for another through theme…no resolution. It feels as though sections, phrase work, and movement never really ends, it just dissolves into something else, the super something of nothing coming to an end. And this state of meditation was never more prevalent than when the movers left the stage, and billows of smoke filled the theater. It oozed out over the audience, creating disillusion. With bold, almost search light’esque lighting design by Carolina Ortiz, we move into a visual neon club millennial supernova where everyone is invited to a party they’ve already been at for hours. It was full of exploration and uncertainty in the form of acceptance through patience.
Jay Carlon, Justin Faircloth, Evelyn Lilian Sanchez Narvaez and Wendell Gray II in “Super Nothing” by Miguel Gutierrez – Photo by Maria Bananov.
The second half, although boxing it in this manner feels counter culture, was tangibly different in its method of movement. Choreographically, there seemed to be more unison, more familiar hand gestures, and large sweeping swings of the arms and legs in space while continuing phrase work over and over in different locations. The movers were more vocal, with noticeable grunting, breath work, and clapping giving subjective thought provoking pokes towards ambiguity or cryptic precision. But it was all right there, and up close, in the beautiful intimacy of the Freud Playhouse. The four performers seemed to rely on one another and yet move through this performance almost entirely alone. Are they friends? Are they partnered in life somehow? What brings them together to only tear them apart? Are they in love? These are questions that seem important at first and yet end up in the wash with the other pieces that one ends up letting go of. How important is it after all, to be involved so heavily in another stranger’s life.
For this reviewer’s cerebral nature, “Super Nothing” was a frustrating act of rebellion; at some point you have to give up, let go, and feel. The piece meets you where you are in life and gives you that which you wish to take away. There is no right, wrong, good, or bad, it simply exists as a chaotic, and yet well put together, sequence of events filtered through the experience of performance. It’s honest. And we could use a little honesty these days.
The Lighting Designer for “Super Nothing” was Carolina Ortiz, Costume Designer: Jeremy Wood, and Dramaturgy: Stephanie Acosta.
To learn more about Miguel Gutierrez, please visit his website.
For more information about UCLA’s Freud Playhouse, please visit their website.
Written by Grace Courvoisier for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Jay Carlon, Justin Faircloth, Evelyn Lilian Sanchez Narvaez and Wendell Gray II in “Super Nothing” by Miguel Gutierrez – Photo by Maria Bananov.
