FFWD Weekly
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Things are changing, morning glory
Anniversary dance show looks at how nothing stays the same
by Nikki SheppyThe Spirit Moves
Springboard Dance
December 3 - 7
New Dance/Theatre SpaceIn the West, we approach it with a mixture of fear and fascination. We brace ourselves for it. We try to avoid it. We sweet-talk ourselves into creating it within our lives. Meanwhile, that old cliché never lets up. Change is indeed the one great constant.
Featuring the work of choreographers Trina Rasmuson and Darcy McGehee, "The Spirit Moves" celebrates Springboard Dance's 10-year anniversary by having a look at the forces of change and how we experience them. It also suggests that culture plays a crucial role in how we view change.
"At the time (I began the work), I was very, very content with my life," says Rasmuson. "And I thought that was very cool because in order to be content you have to be totally accepting of everything that comes at you."
This innate acceptance of change was the basis of Rasmuson's first piece "Like a Light, Azure Morning Glory." The title is the final line in an anonymous haiku that caught Rasmuson's attention while she flipped through a collection of Japanese poetry:
I love the rest of my life
though it is transitory
like a light azure morning glory.
According to Rasmuson, the dance is a fairly abstract piece divided into three parts, each one embodying a line in the haiku. As it moves from part to part, the dance builds from a solo to a duet, and finally closes with a trio.
"It's really about enjoying change, having a little bit of fun with it," says Rasmuson. "It's that lighthearted feeling after you're already over the hump and you're ready to take on the world."
Set to Japanese folk songs and a piece by the Koto Drummers, the dance features shadowplay behind lit screens. In some ways, admits Rasmuson, there's an element of voyeurism to it. But what really attracted her to the Japanese atmosphere was the sheer simplicity of that culture's approach to change.
"The whole Japanese esthetic is very much about clarity," she says. "That intrigued me... I just became fascinated. There's so much in a haiku, but it's so... (compact). You can just take it (at face value) or you can keep diving and diving into the layers."
"Surrender," Rasmuson's second piece, is admittedly more of a traditionally Western take on change.
"I think the Japanese piece will be less familiar to a Western audience," says Rasmuson. "But I think 'Surrender' is commonplace. It's how we Westerners view change. We deny it and deny it and deny it. And then when we have to, we do it. I feel there are certain Eastern philosophies that embrace change. That is perhaps a little less familiar to us."
In "Surrender," which is a solo performance, Rasmuson examines the internal journey that a person undertakes while struggling to accept change. As such, it's darker, more kinetic and more physical. Set to music by Phillip Glass, the piece also feels a lot more ominous, says Rasmuson.
"It's about getting to the point of surrender," she explains.
When asked about her hopes for the show, Rasmuson is straightforward.
"I would like the audience to enjoy it, of course. But I'd also like it to serve as a provocation to thought. Change is a personal thing. You have to look inside yourself. If you don't do that, it comes around again - two years later, 10 minutes later, or whatever - and hits you."
"One thing is for sure," she says. "Everyone deals with change. Nobody is exempt."
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