Displaying items by tag: chicago danztheatre

As we left the theatre my companion said, “I’d give that an A- if I knew what the heck we just saw.” From the mouths of Friends!

THIS IS NOT A PIPE is a compilation of several genres packaged together into a 2-hour production. Each of these moieties are excellently performed, though I had trouble piecing it all together into a whole.

Ellyzabeth Adler^sh/h, Chicago Danztheatre’s Executive Artistic Director, with Assistant Director Hannah Blau^sh/h, choreographed and directed THIS IS NOT A PIPE; you can’t tell me “That Is Not Multi-Tasking!

The show begins with the all-female cast dressed in identical business suits and bowler hats – all but one, who floats about in a gauzy white 1920’s gown and enormous leghorn hat. Oh yeah, many of the actors don’t enter the stage on foot. The first half-dozen entrances are made slithering gracefully on the floor of the center aisle.

Oh, and by the way, nobody speaks. We’re nearly ten minutes into the show before one of the bowler hats says “Molly?”, followed by a lovely exhibition of … what?  Geometric dance? Gymnastic pirouettes? Balletic castelling? with various bowlers emitting infrequent yips of “Molly?” “Molly!”

The action is really launched when Dr. Freud (Jenise Sheppard^th/th) takes the stage in dapper [male] evening dress, wielding a cane (which, no doubt, Is Not A Cane) and reciting passages from the writings of her male doppleganger Sigmund. Sheppard has an awesome stage presence and held me transfixed. They play ‘Red Light/Green Light’ with the ensemble, pointing the cane and barking “Nein!”, at which the person selected freezes until the next dancer is “Nein!-ed”, while continuing their soliloquy of Freudian maxims, unsurprisingly dominated by the word ‘penis’.

The final quarter hour of the action I found beautiful to watch but just as difficult to reconcile with the other sections. Adler defines her mission as taking “the works of Sigmund Freud, Rene Magritte and the birth of modern psychology… apart to question identity, sexuality, womanhood and dream interpretation, while bringing some of Magritte’s images to life’. This is quite a diverse and arduous task, and I didn’t quite see it realized, though the production certainly achieves a dream-like quality throughout.

I already said this, but it deserves saying again: every segment is superbly performed. Costumes are brilliantly designed, particularly as several quick changes occur onstage. Stripping is more than just taking off your clothes! but they pull it off, Sheppard and all twelve dancers: Angel Page Smigielski^th/th, Courtney Reid Harris^sh/h, Emma Parssi^sh/h, Julie Peterson^sh/h, Keila Hamed-Ramos^sh/h, Kristen Secrist^sh/h, Laura Sturm^sh/h, Lila Rubin^sh/h, Mary Iris Loncto^sh/h, Mia Hilt^sh/h, Morgan Van Dyne^th/th, and Wannapa P-Eubanks^sh/h.

Joshua Paul Weckesser^h/h and Joe Griffin^h/h do very well with light and sound design, especially given the technical constraints of the venue. Adler designs the set, with EC Brown^sh/h responsible for the original 2006 bird backdrop, Naomi Flores^sh/h for Rose Construction, and Matthew Gregory Hollis^h/h doing Photography. The remainder of the crew includes Managing Director Carly Davis^sh/h, Community Engagement Director Naomi Flores, and Gabrielle Foreman^sh/h as Stage Manager and Assistant Production Crew.

Kudos to all for a unique and very absorbing evening!

Through November 19^th, in the Auditorium at Ebenezer Lutheran Church, 1650 W. Foster Ave.

Dancing normally isn't my thing, but literature is. And "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is, surprisingly, a better candidate than most short stories for a dance interpretation. It starts as something quaint, recognizable, and spirals its way into madness: something dance and music can convey potently.

Gilman's feminist classic "The Yellow Wallpaper" brought much-needed light to the issue of women's mental health when it was published in 1892, and it still sheds light on this often misunderstood experience today.

The postpartum-suffering protagonist of this story wants to be heard, but her husband silences her at every turn — confining her to the house, isolating her from friends, even discouraging her from writing — leaving her anxiety and confusion nowhere to turn but inward. She starts seeing things in the yellow wallpaper of her bedroom. She sees a woman trapped behind bars, her own situation playing out in the wallpaper every night. By the end, she and her hallucination are one and the same. With no other outlet for her emotions, she's turned herself into something flat and silent, but weirdly free.

And to see this all acted out through dance is visceral and wonderful.

This joint production by Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble and RE Dance Group comprises of two shows: "The Attic Room" by RE Dance and "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Danztheatre. The choreography by Michael Estanich and Ellyzabeth Adler, respectively, is desperate and graceful, the characters losing control in one moment and suspiciously, blithely sedated the next. The dance incorporated into the story was emotive and seamless. As a dance dummy, these vague terms are the best I can use to describe it, but what I can say is it made me feel things.

What was an unreliable narrator on paper, too wrapped in her psychosis to describe herself objectively, is now right in front of us, slowly losing it and crying out for help. While "The Attic Room" is more abstract, both productions depict a slow undoing of a character's reality, and the helplessness and confinement of not understanding her own mind.

"The Attic Room" and "The Yellow Wallpaper" are playing November 19th & 20th at 8PM at 1650 W Foster Ave. Tickets at Danztheatre's website.