Review: TRISHA BROWN DANCE at The Joyce Theater

The ultimate pioneer of post-modern dance, Trisha Brown, is known for her abandonment of classic shapes, twisted choreographic pathways, and the constant contrast of freedom and bondage in dance. Following the choreographer’s death in 2017, Trisha Brown Dance Company continues her legacy through classic stage performances, relocated works on site, and lastly, newly commissioned works for their 2024 Joyce Season.

Premiere modern and contemporary dance companies can only rely on their founder’s repertoire for so many years, until the company finds space or yearning for a fresh voice. Premiering on March 26, Trisha Brown Dance Company reveals a work by French choreographer Noé Soulier, the second work performed outside of Brown’s repertoire. The premiere is placed between two of Brown’s signature pieces Glacial Decoy (1979) and Working Title (1985). The program order itself feels like a time capsule from past to present, jumping between segments of Brown’s choreographic timeline to new choreographic dialogue informed by her distinguishment.

As silence seeps over the theater, curtains rise to reveal Brown’s considered masterpiece, Glacial Decoy, with a simple visual: three black and white pictures on a screen. Suddenly, the photos change, pushing each image to the righthand screen. The clicks happen visually and auditorily: each time the picture changes, an actual clock ticking sound occurs. Unsettling and hollow, we see pictures of everyday life and Americana: a dog, palm trees, lanterns, laundry hung up to dry. Visual artist Robert Rauschenberg, responsible for the entire cast’s memorable costuming and photographs, is Brown’s collaborator, marking their first true partner work. Two female dancers, barefoot, embody a ghost-like presence, wearing dainty white long dress-type garments paired with fabric cuffs around the bicep.

 

Utilizing their floating illusion, the dancers begin Brown’s movement with effortlessness and emotional absence.  There seems to be no fourth wall. Each individual is committed to their pattern, without necessarily acknowledging each other, leaving the audience curious as to what the piece would look like form a bird’s eye view. While the ambience of Glacial Decoy is calm, attention to detail in passing causes excitement. Dancers jump in and out of the wings, only joining in for a short circuit of choreography to jump out again. They collect and let go of their momentum time and time again, as the ticking clock echoes in silence. “It’s a cruel and delightful juxtaposition of dance freedom and bondage,” says restaging co-assistant Lisa Kraus.

 

 In the Fall, choreographed by Noé Soulier with the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, pulls the audience into a mesmerizing world of primary colors with a distinct take on the dancers' relationship with gravity. Two bodies appear backlit hovering over the floor like suspending silhouette sculptures. The dancers, Ashley Merker and Burr Johnson, freeze and collapse, in complete control of their subtle movements using impressive upper body strength. Dancer Savannah Gaillard walks onstage, marking transition into a duet with Burr. “We call it the push duet,” says Gaillard, beginning her first season with the company. "The whole goal of the duet is to have continuous pushes and live inside of the suspension, sometimes they make a shape or conform into ‘one body’." Playful and unpredictable, the audience sits in awe of the dancer’s unrestrained focus and bodily control.

 

As every dancer wears a solid color of red, yellow, or blue, In the Fall begins to feel like a painting, the Joyce stage as the dancer’s canvas. The colors ooze and melt into each other without changing tone, other times they stay completely separated. Soulier, the painter of this visual, studied Brown’s vocabulary at the Performing Arts Research and Training Studios in Brussels as a student. In the Fall makes use of the artist’s brain, with much of its set movement created by initial spur of the moment improvisation. “Where she [Trisha Brown] reveals the fundamental forces of work in the body with extraordinary clarity and fluidity, I explore inorganic transitions, the gap between intention and gesture, effort and contraction,” says Soulier in a program note.

Finishing the program on a playful note comes Working Title, which premiered at New York City Center in 1985. The dancers, dressed in fun patterns and pastel colors, have a children-spirited appearance, as if in a park during the Spring. The audience immediately realizes the dancers are not using counts of eight to dance to, instead they are listening to each other. As the sound of summer cicadas emerges, nostalgia of a summer evening seeps into the room. Working Title is unpredictable and athletic. “It is a child’s first experience of running fast,” says Brown in a program note. Magnetizing, the audience can feel each other pulled into Brown’s world of summer play and intense attention to timing and musicality. Brown's legacy is alarmingly alive, creating obvious influence on recent day choreographers and the company's dedication to preserving her tenacious and wondrous movement style. 

Founding Artistic Director & Choreographer: Trisha Brown

Associate Artistic Director: Carolyn Lucas

Assistant Rehearsal Director: Cecily Campbell

Dancers: Christian Allen, Cecily Campbell, Savannah Gaillard, Lindsey Jones, Burr Johnson, Catherine Kirk, Ashley Merker, Patrick Needham, Jennifer Payán

Credit: Maria Baranova
Glacial Decoy
#8197: (l-r) Jennifer Payán, Cecily Campbell
Working Title
#7192: Katherine Kirk (in air), Jennifer Payán, Cecily Campbell
In the Fall
#6014: (l-r) Patrick Needham, Cecily Campbell, Burr Johnson

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