Black Dance — 2020 Reviews — DC Dance Journalism Project

Black+storybook+Village+Dance+1.jpg — *A Black Storybook*
The Village Dance Project
Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival
Washington, D.C.
February 23, 2020

Seats quickly fill in the sold-out Sprenger Theatre, the anticipation growing for artistic director Rachael Sutherland’s first ever production of an evening-length work. The sounds of light jazz and buzzing conversations bounce off the walls. This is a crowd of people connected; hugs and warm acknowledgements are shared, a dance between tonight’s village has begun.

A Black Storybook plays out just like the title suggests: an episodic storytelling of Black life and the intricacies of intercommunity. In the program, which has the feel and look of something straight out of a Black church, Sutherland opens up about her realization that the life she had grown to understand -- a loving two-parent household and many mentors -- is neither a universal, nor universally acknowledged, experience.

The work is divided into nine vignettes, the program reading like an order of Sunday services. In the first episode, entitled “Intro,” eight bodies emerge from the wings in a succession of saunters. In “The Community,” moments of camaraderie are danced with rhythm and poise. A repetitive slide, more complicated than The Wobble, seamlessly unfurls before our eyes.

Soloist Andre’ana Miller captivates the audience in “The Conversation.” Miller virtuosically snakes between balletic lines, an undulating spine, and a groove so grounded the ancestors have no choice but to wake up. House music blares as the dancers entice us with their sweeping turns and sustained movements. I was longing to see them give into the rhythm. Finally they did! They sank into the pocket of the beat and connected to the earth.

In the interlude before “The Aels,” Sutherland delicately passes out flowy white jumpsuits and, in a moment of rawness and transparency, the dancers change onstage. They float to the edge of the stage, standing in one horizontal line. This piece takes a contemporary liturgical spin. The classic undulating torso of liturgical dance mixed with skillful, dancerly athleticism.

The night breezes by with five more short stories to close out the anthology. Sutherland mourns, writhes, and contends with how one's village can only protect Black boys from so much before the world shows them its dark side. We see another break-out soloist, Jada Spriggs, who jumps, melts, and shares her soul with precision and ease. The dancers move as one unit, one village with exactitude: quick moving feet coincide with the joyful gospel music.

Right out of the gate, with her first evening-length production, Sutherland cements her place in the lineage of dance artists unpacking the specificity of Black life in America. A Black Storybook displayed the range of the cast, as they marry storyline with abstract movements. Sutherland leaves room for wonder, leaves room for the village to stretch their minds and check themselves. From the balletic steps to the complicated hip-hop-like footwork, each dancer is showcased beautifully.

This autobiographical work is filled to the brim with an exemplary display of just how crafty dance can be. In the very last moment of the piece, the cast encloses Sutherland in a heart warming embrace stirring up a rather urgent reminder: in our life’s journey no one does it alone: Find your village, reconnect with your village and love on them while you still can.

Photos courtesy of Rachel Sutherland

By Ramona Harper

“Is it necessary to go to Europe for balletic inspiration when we can find it right here?” And with that cogent and inspirational quote from founder, artistic director and choreographer Shawn Short, he pounds a powerful punch to traditional notions about ballet. Dissonance Dance Theatre’s fleet-footed evening of contemporary ballet, Diaspora, part of the Intersections Festival at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, demonstrated how ballet can be more inclusive and draw inspiration from contemporary urban sources.

A diaspora represents a scattering of peoples, their cultures and communities from a place of origin to a new land. Dissonance denotes a lack of agreement or discordance in beliefs. In Diaspora, an ambitious slate of eight energetic works, Short merges the two ideas to create a powerful program that moves ballet to new horizons of cultural fusion, dispelling any singular notion of how ballet should be expressed.

Envision contemporary ballet that’s prestissimo — fast, quick and light-footed in execution with leaping splits, high leg kicks, acrobatic lifts as jazz hands reach to the sky and, most of all, an incredible energy that enthralls. “Silo,” the opening piece, with music by the iconic Earth, Wind and Fire, makes you hold onto your seat for a ride that never lets up in excitement and vigor requiring pure stamina for Dissonance’s hard-driving dancers.

The emotional impact of all eight works in Diaspora quickens the pulse with a thrilling kind of anticipation. But there are moments when you do need time to catch your breath in this fast-paced program.

“When October Goes” and “To Joshua with Love” are more mellow pieces that can slow down your racing heart with romantic vocals by Nancy Wilson and instrumentals by J. Redman and YoYo Ma.

Short choreographed every piece in this eclectic program and there’s a soothing sameness in the lyricism of its repetitive movements in quick turns, flowing carriage of the arms, and beautiful partnering. Floor straddling splayed limbs and outstretched arms appeared ever romantic but methodical and precise.

Diaspora melds contemporary ballet with modern dance and jazz. It’s as elegant as a swan in motion with a Caribbean essence and American street-dance cool.

A strong ensemble of female dancers shimmies en pointe to a Lindy Hop beat in “Big Band Suite (Movement 1-3).” Then male dancers sensuously swivel their hips to a calypso cadence in “As the Sun Rises” with the full ensemble expressing the Junkanoo joy of a Carnival street parade.

Ngoma Center students from the training arm of Dissonance Dance Theatre perform in “Relax, Relate and Release.” These talented budding ballerinas and modern dancers are terrific and their exceptional synchronicity of movement is commendable.

What impacted me most about the works in Diaspora is choreography that uses the whole body of the dance and the dancers with no part standing out from the rest. The entire ensemble effortlessly moves into focus and then individual dancers exit the stage. They magically reappear as duets or sure-footed soloists who again surrender to the ensemble creating a sense of being connected in an intensely organic way.

Dissonance Dance Theatre remains the only nationally recognized, Black-managed contemporary ballet company between New York and Atlanta, according to Short. For the past 13 years, under Short’s dynamic and committed guidance, the company has been making an important contribution to the dance community of Washington, D.C.

Photos courtesy Dissonance Dance Theatre