The piece begins with a spotlight on a dancer sitting in a school desk, although its laying on its side against the floor. The dancer slithers her way upright, propping herself up with her hands while delivering a monologue, requesting the audience be accountable for their action (or rather, inaction) when it came to the condition of our planet Earth. She’s able to push the desk all the way up, and leaning forward onto it, the four other dancers of The Seldoms approach her.
The Seldoms Lead A Conversation We Cannot Exit.
We must educate ourselves. This is urgent!
The dancers then manipulate themselves around the desk and each other. One kneels on top of it, one sneaks around underneath, others surround it, actively exploring the possibilities this desk holds. The desk somehow makes its way across the stage in the mix of motion, while the dancers quickly throw limbs all about, cutting the space. Their urgency hits with the crispness, precision, and speed of each sequence. Trios become duets and trios again. Dancers pass each other about the stage, alert and attending to each other like a well-oiled machine. These dancers fly and fling each other like something depends on it. Something bigger than themselves.
Founding Artistic Director Carrie Hanson starts out the night with a land acknowledgement, paying homage to the Native American tribes who first inhabited what is now Chicago. She details its history, and notes that even though we recognize the past, we must also talk about the future of the land. This is the spark that ignited the creation of this piece and the company’s new work premiering in 2020 about climate instability, Floe.
The Seldoms dive deep into scientific research, digging into qualitative facts and exact statistics from past years. Two dancers get into a tiff about the coldest and warmest years in history, each questioning the others’ credibility. Skepticism and disbelief collide between them. We are informed that for every mile driven in a car, one pound of emissions goes into the atmosphere. We hear a car honking and one dancer angrily sticks her head out the door to pass this fact along to whomever is idling so inconsiderately.
The urgency in the movement mirrors the urgency of the condition of our planet. Highly physical, complex movement sequences, compositions, and partnering with each other and props make the audience feel how complicated all the information has become. The off-kilter nature of the choreography suggests some information we receive about our planet is tilted, skewed. We see many tipping points in the dancers’ bodies and the desk. Sometimes, two dancers wouldn’t quite dance in unison, but were still connected by rhythm or echo.
The sounds accompanying the movement also help us to imagine and feel what’s going on. Drips of water, the sound of inhaling and exhaling, and a compilation of political figures speaking about climate change all add to how convoluted this information is. One dancer delivers more statistics and facts on climate change matter-of-factly, until another dancer hands her a spatula, like a microphone on the news. Suddenly, her tone changes. She’s giving us this information with sex appeal. We see that sometimes it’s not what the information is, but how it is delivered that will make people listen.
At the end of the day, among all the skewed information and perspectives that are thrown around, we must just breathe. But if the air and water are poisoned… then what happens? We only have one earth, one home. We must think about the future and try to make it better. The time is now.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Performance by The Seldoms ensemble: Solomon Bowser, Philip Elson, Sarah Bonsiorowski, Damon D. Green, Maggie Vannucci
Choreography/Direction by Artistic Director Carrie Hanson
Text by Seth Bockley
Sound Design & Composition by Mikhail Fiksel
Lighting Design and Technical Direction by Julie E. Ballard
Additional Technical Support by Philip Elson
Movement contributions by original cast: Philip Elson, Damon D. Green, Amanda McAlister Howard, Bruce Ortiz, Javier Marchan Ramos, Cara Sabin, and addition movement development by company membes of WCdance of Taiwan: Yen-Chi Huang, Tzu-Chun Lin, Hua-Bao Chien, Hsin-Yu Chen, Tzu-Ying Lee, Wei-Han Li.
For more information visit The Seldoms website.
Photos by Maureen Janson Heintz and Brian Kuhlmann
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About the Author:
Sarah Stearn is a movement artist, native of Chicago, and graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a BFA in Dance. Along with taking dance classes throughout the city, she is a dance instructor at the Irving Park YMCA and an organizer for the J e l l o Performance Series, housed at Links Hall and Elastic Arts.
