Modern dancers explore
Modern dancers explore into the depths of emotion. In an extreme example, KDHdance company took on the theme of “Alone, alone.” The journey is one of courage for the choreographer facing an empty nest. Aloneness and lonliness are so charged in our culture that most times we accept it and refuse to find the time to look at it. We usually react to”alone” with extreme journeys into therapy, meditation, depression, divorce, workshops, retreats, and multi-level marketing.
KDHdance tackles the job of jumping into water over our heads and exploring to find a way back to shore. “Alone, alone” is an encyclopedic exploration of a hard look into the depths of the emotion, the turmoil, the demands of swimming again and again to the bottom and again to the top, winding and unwinding through entangling metaphoric weeds, shedding fear, gulping, and recommiting.
“Alone” is such a difficult theme because dance choreographers have taken as their territory a consistent theme of the battle and struggle in relationships. Aloneness and loneliness are a fact we accept and connecting with other people, our world, or a higher power we see as a job.
Making the job even more difficult, “Alone,’ works within the traditional relationships of Modern and other contemporary dance. Aloneness is a major mode. Dancers approach their own feelings and project them. Connections between dancers are to direct, to assist, to join breifly before returning to an alone dance. Unison dances are a series of lone dancers agreeing to make a statement together. Even friendship or romanctic bonds are understood as a frame for being left “alone.” Because all the relationships are characterized by aloneness, it becomes especially difficult to explore outside the realm of the individual’s feelings and emotions.
Brilliant dancers again and again pull us out of our denial to look into the depths of aloneness and loneliness. The entire show is book-ended beginning and ending with moving and somehow tender performances by Ryan Parent and Andrea Williams.
Tags: dancers explore