Review: BODYTRAFFIC: CHECK-MATE Dazzled at The Wallis

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts welcomed back BODYTRAFFIC, the Los Angeles-based contemporary dance company led by Artistic Director Tina Finkelman Berkett, to their Los Angeles theater home base on December 11, 12 and 13 as the second engagement of a long-term partnership between the two companies, which highlighted the dance company’s technical prowess and ability to masterfully embody diverse choreography styles via their dazzling versatility.

The ten ultra-talented dancers included Katie Garcia, Pedro Garcia, Joan Rodriguez, Jordyn Santiago, Chandler Davidson, Becky Garcia, Brenan Gonzalez, Jahnell D. Boozer, Grecia Cruz, and Kennedy Simon. Each on their own is a masterful performer, and together the ensemble dazzled during the four distinct pieces that celebrated bold style, storytelling, and movement.

The evening began with the BODYTRAFFIC premiere of Schachmatt (Check-Mate) by Cayetano Soto which turned a giant chessboard into a theatrical playground, drawing inspiration from Pedro Almodóvar’s cinematic flair and Bob Fosse’s choreographic swagger. Highlights included amazing leg extensions, lots of Fosse jazz hands, and powerful, pinpoint movement control. Music timing changed often but never lost that special Fosse touch, apparent with each attitude pose or teacup hands at the edge of hats. The piece was very playful, performed by the talented dancers, first in front of 12 very bright floor lamps to create a shadowy effect.

BODYTRAFFIC perform Coalescence by Jordyn Santiago

The second piece, Coalescence by Jordyn Santiago, was a vibrant, affirming love letter to femininity, queerness, and community which featured dancers in flowing beige outfits that created an overall calming and very soothing effect thanks to the diaphanous quality of the costumes. The piece centered on bringing a lonely woman suffering heartbreak into the supportive world of other women. The very supportive message about how the importance of peer acceptance and encouragement makes all things possible centered around each woman sincerely telling the others “I Love You” and really mean it, allowing us into their special sisterhood which expressed the power of women to overcome any hurdle to happiness by fully supporting each other without judgment. An original score combines high-energy house music with a new composition by New York City musician/composer Rafa Aslan.

BODYTRAFFIC perform Coalescence by Jordyn Santiago

After intermission, Flyland by David Middenthorp is a duet that merges dance with immersive video projection on both the floor and the cyclorama which offered a heart-tugging blend of animation, projection, and choreography to stunning effect. Performed on an empty stage with projections behind the two dancers, which began with them seated at a red table and chairs and morphed into the duo flying across the clouds together. The two dancers performed much of the choreography while laying on the floor, able to watch as their projected body movements appeared with the projected scenes on the back wall as well as the floor, blurring the boundary between fantasy and reality as it plays with perspective. Especially thrilling was the moment the two appeared as spiders crawling around a deep green, dewy garden web! Flyland is a production of Another Kind of Blue.

The final piece of the evening was the most anticipated, the world premiere of Secret Goodbye by BODYTRAFFIC’s Creative Partner Trey McIntyre for four dancers (three men, one woman) set to the music of Sam Cooke. As the dancers moved through his music about heartbreak, loneliness, and ultimate fulfillment in love, songs featured included “The Tennessee Waltz” “Bring It on Home to Me,” “Frankie and Johnny,” an outstanding solo dance to possibility through letting go to “Change Gonna Come,” and to the magic of love via “Cupid,” “Nothing Can Change this Love,” and “I Wish You Love” which featured all four dancers celebrating their joy of life through dance. The entire piece was a perfect match between the songs of Cooke, known as the King of Soul, and BODYTRAFFIC’s incredible style in presenting the full range of human emotions through creative, flowing movement.

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, in Beverly Hills will continue to present works by BODYTRAFFIC in the future through their ongoing artistic partnership. Tickets and more information are available at https://thewallis.org/ And to learn more about BODYTRAFFIC, visit their website at https://www.bodytraffic.com/

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