Review: Gender Roles Examined Through Music, Dance, and Word in SANS

My regular readers know of my distaste for performance art. Mostly this is due to the fact that I usually just don't get what they're trying to convey or find the way they are conveying it gratuitous and self-gratifying. On the other hand I love music and dance and of course good theater. And so I'm of two minds over the piece "sans" currently being offered from Danse Theatre Surreality. On the one hand there were definitely moments that made me go, "huh?" but on the other hand they did manage to convey somewhat of a message and the performances were lovely.

The show definitely bends towards the surreal and metaphorical as you enter the space to find three performers draped in material hanging from the ceiling. As they step forward they are revealed to each other and the audience to be naked. They struggle to communicate silently with each other. The first to succeed is the dancer, Christin Call, who moves about to the beat of her own internal drum at first. Eventually the other two, the musician, Joshua Dent, and the actor, Daniel Christensen, find their own means of expression. But once they do, the freedom of their expressions is quickly restricted by arbitrary rules from the group.

Director Lauren Hlubny began the evening by offering a question to the audience, "What is feminism?" And with that offering the theme of the evening became fairly clear. Honestly I think we would have gotten there on our own but it was a good thing to have in our heads as the piece unfolded. The message here was much clearer than other performance art pieces I've seen and the elements of dance, music and theater were quite well done but there were still a few of those confusing and out there moments that felt as if the performers and creators knew what they meant but not so much the audience. Specifically the ending that I will not spoil here but left me wondering if I was still watching the show or simply the performer winding down after the show.

This piece will definitely not be for everyone. If you're overly sensitive to nudity on stage or displays of violence toward women or just don't care for performance art then you may want to give it a miss. However as I said, the performances, especially Call's beautiful dancing, are quite expressive and at times beautiful and harrowing and on that note alone the show has merit.

So while I'm still not a big fan of performance art I was able to take some things away from this piece that made the evening meaningful. And so with my three letter rating system I give "sans" a thoughtful and appreciative MEH+. And for a performance art piece, that's fairly high praise coming from me.

"sans" from Danse Theatre Surreality performs at various locations through October 18th. For tickets or information visit them online at https://dansetheatresurreality.org/upcoming-performances/sans/.

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