Three modern dance innovators under one roof. What more could a dance aficionado ask for? Beautiful, epic pieces of dance filled New York Live Arts on Tuesday evening from three greats: Elisa Monte, Jacqulyn Buglisi and Jennifer Muller. In Reflections on Water, their second collaboration, they have reached into their repertoire and also created new works that together “portray water as the source of life/the destruction of life.”
The evening begins with Buglisi Dance Theatre's Sacred Landscape Episode 1. Buglisi describes this dreamlike piece as “exploring the belief that sacred landscapes are passageways that facilitate access to a higher realm, evoking the sacred, being and nothing, the impermanence we turn inward to discover.” The dancers move with purpose and a rich inner narrative driving their fluid bodies. On opening night, the audience was delighted with the spectacular cellist Jeffrey Zeigler and haunting vocals by Helga Davis.
The second piece is a sharp juxtaposition in mood and sensory awareness. Elisa Monte takes us on a tumultuous journey of love gone wrong, or right, violent or loving. Hurricane Deck features four couples who, according to Monte, “embrace and combat simultaneously seeking the truth and trying to regain trust.” Set to music by David Lang, the dancers are emotive, powerfully precise and compelling. An added layer of excitement: in the last few moments of the piece, the dancers choose how to end it. Will they choose love or will they choose loss? Truly suspenseful.
As the intermission progressed, a scrim, acting as a transparent fourth wall, was installed between the audience and the stage, creating a buzz of excitement around the house. Alchemy by Jennifer Muller sent chills down spines in the first several minutes. Projections of phrases and world news headlines scrolled across that scrim which sparked a degree of nervousness in me -- which was, I imagine, the point of it all. With lines such as “All is white noise” and “2400 killed in Nepal Earthquake” or “Killer is Diagnosed with Paraphilia” and the heart-pounding musical compilations of Kangding Ray, Andy Scott and John Talabot, it gave one the feeling of living an entire life in fifteen minutes.
The final piece of the evening was Jacqulyn Buglisi’s Sand, which gave an impression of romantic sorrow and impassioned pining. Set to the music by the great composer Philip Glass, this dance was a perfect release for the satisfying emotional roller coaster evening of dance. The writhing movements gave the piece a profound sense of intimacy and unbridled romantic fervor.
To watch the company members of Elisa Monte Dance, Buglisi Dance Theatre and Jennifer Muller/The Works is to witness twenty-six of New York City’s finest dancers in the budding brightness of their careers. Onstage together, the gripping dances and dancers blend as if from the same cosmic tribe. The combined work of Buglisi, Monte and Muller feels gorgeously kismet in Reflections on Water, as if commissioned by the dance gods themselves.
