The Future Is Feverish

Saturday night, I attended this year's dance recital from proartedanza. This contemporary dance company often combines classical ballet with modern dance. The first piece tonight was titled Future Perfect Continuous. At the end, we realized that the piece's text came from a millennial who was terrified of future climate change, ashamed of her inaction and wasteful Western lifestyle, and unsure about what she should do. Throughout the piece, these words were broken up into fragments and incorporated into the movement and speech of the dancers. This was the most successful work for me.

The second piece, entitled adjusted surrender, highlighted two older dancers who, by this time in most careers, would have hung up their shoes. Though physical virtuosity was behind them, there was still grace and gravitas in their movement. Appropriately enough, the piece was about a married couple who were looking back on their various life decisions with fondness, regret, or bitterness.

The last piece Op Sha! didn't work for me. Supposedly about life events like birthdays and weddings while incorporating Eastern European folk dance movement, the work actually seemed too abstract. This isn't usually a problem with modern dance but with music provided by Lemon Bucket Orkestra which was so rooted in a real culture (Balkan/Klezmer), it was hard to reconcile that music with mostly non-narrative choreography. Actually, I didn't much like the music either. It was repetitive and aggressive, which might make for a great concert to dance at, but not at a recital to sit through. So overall, I think this was their weakest recital in recent years.