Great Barrington — Of all the artists who took strategic advantage of pandemic restrictions, one of the foremost must be Tina Finkelman Berkett, artistic director of Los Angeles-based contemporary dance troupe BODYTRAFFIC, appearing November 10 and 11 at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. Berkett used her down time in 2020 to make wishes and reinvent her company, which performed at Jacob’s Pillow in the summer of 2022 with a group of new dancers who now constitute the company Berkett had always dreamed of, dancers whose discovery she calls a “gift from the universe.”
Berkett told the San Diego Union-Tribune in May, “Our dancers have incredible training, and their physicality and athleticism is top notch. They also have a charm and a personality that is unusual in dance today. They let people in and want the audience to get to know them.”
She is right, and a quick look at the troupe’s website confirms it: These dancers clearly have personality to spare and the athleticism of olympians. Writing last year for the Berkshire Eagle, Janine Parker gave a description of the company that comports perfectly with Berkett’s:
The cast of eight dancers offers up snapshots of individual lives experiencing some of the universal joys of life … Dancers fall in and out of love, dream big dreams, fret, and play. Like whimsical figures emerging from a Chagall painting, they become a circus troupe, high-stepping like elegant elephants; or they become a human train, their lower legs moving rhythmically like wheels and rods.
Parker’s language nicely captures the group’s essential on-stage spirit. And yet much of BODYTRAFFIC’s charm actually derives from its repertory, and Berkett is just as effusive about that as she is about her dancers. She says her favorite choreographers embody “the best of what is being staged today.” They include Ohad Naharin, Kyle Abraham, Sidra Bell, Arthur Pita, Micaela Taylor, Fernando Magadan, Matthew Neenan, and Hofesh Shechter.
Here are the dancers of BODYTRAFFIC:
- Pedro Garcia
- Katie Garcia
- Alana Jones
- Tiare Keeno
- Ty Morrison
- Joan Rodriguez
- Jordyn Santiago
- Whitney Schmanski
Seeing these people move like insanely precise clockwork is awe-inspiring—also a little intimidating. But to hear Berkett talk about dance, you would think it was for everyone—not just professionals. And you would be right.
Berkett has really big ideas about dance: “Movement,” she says, “conceptual and physical, is humankind’s only common language.” Accordingly, she wants to make dance accessible to everyone—to elevate dance “beyond an art form to a mode of exploration and celebration of ideas and spirit through movement.” That is why the company conducts movement workshops for all levels and abilities, including aging adults. They also offer school assembly performances, open rehearsals, masterclasses, and other forms of community outreach.
See contemporary dance troupe BODYTRAFFIC at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, on Friday, November 10, at 8 p.m., and on Saturday, November 11, at 3 p.m. Tickets are available here.
