Becket — BODYTRAFFIC is an apt name for the Los Angeles-based dance company which, last Wednesday evening, opened for a week of performances on The Ted Shawn Theatre at Jacob’s Pillow. The word conjures up the complex, fast, and almost unfathomable—yet somehow coordinated—movement of the LA freeways, a fitting metaphor for this high-octane dance company.
Founded in 2007 by Tina Finkelman Berkett and Lillian Barbeito, the company, now solely directed by Finkelman Berkett (who has an impressive dance history herself), moved fairly quickly to develop an audience and a reputation, refine its vision of showcasing diverse dance styles and perspectives, and expand its reach. Over the last five years or so, the company’s rise has been much more meteoric, and with good reason: BODYTRAFFIC is an innovative, vibrant, frontline dance company very much worth seeing. After three prior appearances in the other venues at Jacob’s Pillow, the company now appropriately finds itself on the Shawn mainstage.
The company prides itself on its “technical prowess and versatility,” and a repertoire that embraces ballet, modern, Afro-Cuban, hip-hop, and much more. It has attracted some of the world’s most creative and sought-after choreographers, such as Trey McIntyre (recently having become a creative partner in the company), Kyle Abraham, and Ohad Naharin. As evidenced by the program at the Pillow this week, however, the company is not content to just create and present dance. The company also wants to incorporate visual imagery and other high-tech modalities such as projections, film, and video into the work. Ultimately, though, this is a dance company, and the work rises and falls on the backs of the dancers. And these dancers (oh, these dancers!) are completely up to the tasks given them.
“Blue Until June,” choreographed in the year 2000 by the aforementioned McIntyre for The Washington Ballet and featuring the incomparable music of Etta James, was a great vehicle to showcase the dancers’ enormously prodigious talents. These are dancers who—with speed, power, and total commitment—explode into movement, give 110 percent, go right to the edge, and beyond, of what they can control, and then pull back from the precipice at the last possible millisecond. Katie Garcia set this standard from the opening moments of her opening solo, and all the other dancers matched it throughout the piece. But make no mistake about it, for all their hip and body isolations, attitude, and swagger, these are extremely well trained—classically trained—dancers who attacked the choreography in “Blue Until June,” and everything else, with razor-sharp technique.
“I Forgot the Start,” choreographed by Matthew Neenan to a suite of contemporary songs, showed perhaps a softer side to the dancers, a kind of rounding of the edges. It began wonderfully, featuring gentle, repetitive, trance-dance kind of movement, and built slowly and intelligently. At some point, however, this viewer felt as though the choreographer was seduced by the technical strength and ability of the dancers with whom he was working. It was like he said to himself, “I have an unbelievable dance resource here. I’m not going to squander it, I’m going to use it fully and completely.” From that point forward, the choreography, while retaining some of its softer edges, became bigger, splashier, and more familiar. Of course, the dancers responded perfectly, performing the movement with their endless supply of passion, technique, and commitment. The work had a particularly lovely and poignant ending, coming out of a beautiful duet. The piece included video by Christopher Ash, who also designed the set and lighting, all of which integrated nicely with the dancers.
“Incense Burning on a Saturday Morning: The Maestro” was choreographed by Juel D. Lane to an original music composition by Munir Zakee. The program notes that the piece is a tribute to the legacy of the singular painter Ernest “Ernie” Barnes Jr. It included video and visual, and even audio, effects representing, on some level, Barnes’ work. These were incorporated interestingly into the piece by Chandler Davidson, who presumably loosely represented Mr. Barnes. Again, this piece showcased the dancers and was a treat across the board, from the dancers, to the music, to the video and projected imagery. Davidson was gorgeous in this piece, and while it feels sacrilegious to pick out certain dancers amongst this extraordinary company of dancers, Anaya Gonzalez and Jordyn Santiago caught this viewer’s eye for their seeming ability, in all the work, to vary their dynamic range even when the relentlessness (in a good way!) of the music and the choreography made that hard.
The concert also included David Middendorp’s “Flyland,” from 2018, which this viewer saw, and reviewed, at the Pillow’s Gala just a few weeks ago. The piece utilized projections on the floor and on the back wall, both recorded and in real time, to change our perspective on the dancers and challenge our sense of gravity and space. It was reminiscent, in its own digital way, of the famous gravity-defying dance Fred Astaire does in the film “Royal Wedding.” Although choreographed only seven years ago, the piece already seems a little dated in this all-consuming AI world, a very sobering and depressing fact (for this viewer anyway).
It is always worthwhile to check out who is performing on the (outdoor) Henry J. Leir Stage on the night you are going to the Shawn or the Doris Duke Theatre (which re-opens in less than two weeks!), and maybe getting a ticket to that early performance as well. On Wednesday night, Almanac Dance Circus Theatre, based in Philadelphia, performed on the Leir. This company, trained in aerials, acrobatics, physical theater, circus, clowning, and even some sleight-of-hand, was definitely rough around the edges, but one wondered if that was purposeful, as it gave their performances simplicity, ingenuousness, and raw innocence.
BODYTRAFFIC will be performing at the Pillow through Sunday, July 6. Seeing this company will bring a smile to your face, and get your blood—and maybe your feet—moving, and that is always a good thing. Tickets and information about this performance, and others at the Pillow, can be found here.
