Volta Collective’s experiential pieces always draw a hip crowd — their dauntless collaborations attract art aficionados and the usual Los Angeles dance devotees alike. Director and choreographer Mamie Green’s dark and uncanny vision stretches wider than movement alone, and the work always reflects that with a uniquely stylish tint.
Volta Collective – “Glass House” by Mamie Green – Photo by courtesy of Central Server Works, Omniversal Pictures and Volta.
Volta’s Glass House, presented by Central Server Works at G-SON Studios was no exception. Partnering once again with writer Sammy Loren (the pair previously collaborated with Ellington Wells for SALT) and newly with writer Zoey Greenwald, Green drew a world of tortured privilege and sex-driven tragedy around narrator Jance Enslin. Investigating internal perception of home clouded by California old money (see references to Joan Didion, as well as timely source texts from Palestinian and French authors), the narration layered carefully with the choreography but did not always land.
Volta Collective – “Glass House” by Mamie Green – Photo by courtesy of Central Server Works, Omniversal Pictures and Volta.
The collaborative docket itself was ambitious; production design by Ryan Brennan, lighting design by Webb Hinton, and costumes by Anya GTA all colliding with art direction and a confrontationally nostalgic DJ set by Gbenga Komolafe. During Frieze, it’s the right move — Green’s particular brand of cool and dark, with a heady thesis but a sexy scene — attracts new audiences, confronting and maybe even criticizing the inaccessibility of the art world. Spectators are tasked with tearing fabric, burying dancers in dirt, and my favorite: tossing a coin into the fountain with a living duet unfolding inside it. I do not know if all three tasks are necessary, but I love to see an audience challenged.
Volta Collective – “Glass House” by Mamie Green – Photo by courtesy of Central Server Works, Omniversal Pictures and Volta.
And now for the dance: an original score by Patrick Shrioishi, performed live, merged into the twisting atmosphere carved by dancers and creative collaborators Anne Kim, Avery Gerhardt, Cacia LaCount, Chadwick Gaspard, Paul Liu, Jolyn Lambey, and Green herself. Green’s style is well-formed by now, slinky and shapely with a mastery of weight-sharing. The dancers, all sitting pretty in their power, disguise brilliant physical feats with model indifference, heads tilted toward the audience as if to question our voyeurism.
Volta Collective – Mamie Green and Chadwick Gaspard in Green’s “Glass House” – Photo courtesy of Central Server Works, Omniversal Pictures and Volta.
For me, the movement glues the pieces together and renders the rest of the elements secondary: Green is just so sure in sculpting the narrative with bodies, and the dancers so excellently carve scenery and context. Kim and LaCount command solo moments with grounded precision; Liu and Gaspard peel out unsuspectingly for single motions that elicit collective gasps. Green presides quietly and authoritatively over her creation. So much is said without having to say it. And watching the cast carry this tone unflinchingly — from a clicking contemporary composition decorated by saxophone melodies, all the way through the 2000s nostalgia of Lil Mama’s “Lip Gloss” — felt like the most successful leveling of high art and ‘low art’ I had seen in a long time.
To learn more about Volta Collective, please visit their website.
Written by Celine Kiner for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Volta Collective – “Glass House” by Mamie Green – Photo by courtesy of Central Server Works, Omniversal Pictures and Volta.
