What It Looks Like To Fall In Love On A Trapeze
Upon entering the theater in the Christ Church Neighborhood House, guests were greeted by a unique, colorful set. Various trapezes hung from the ceiling in front of a backdrop made of colored string woven back and forth. People excitedly took pictures of the vibrant scene with their phones as they waited for the show, Tangle Movement Arts’ Tell It Slant, to begin.
Tell It Slant started with five dancers; four simultaneously moved in graceful, slow-motion on trapezes while one performed a hoop dance on the ground. Upon hearing the music that the dancers moved to, I immediately remembered how much I loved the soundtrack from the last Tangle Movement Arts show I saw, LOOP. Without fail, each of the songs chosen for the cabaret-style show was emotive and poignant. As Lauren Rile Smith, founder of Tangle Movement Arts explained in a recent article, the music and the movement in all of their shows develop together, inextricably linked, and their choice in song is very thoughtful and intentional.
During this cabaret consisting of twelve performances, three numbers stood out to me. Maura Kirk’s dance to “Bang Bang” (as well as her second solo, to “Wrong Wrong”) flirted with danger, and at the same time exposed a numb detachment from pain; a recklessness. Wrapping herself up in fabric, 20 feet in the air, and then letting her body fall limp, almost reaching the ground, she played with the idea of lifelessness all while wearing a coy smile.
What made Deena Weisberg’s piece to a song called “Inauthentic Skin” so special was not just her graceful movement and genuine emotion, but the shadow that her body cast on the brick wall next to her. The lighting was done in such a way that as she twisted her body around the hanging trapeze, the shapes she became were cast larger than life, along the bricks. I alternated between watching Weisberg move in front of me, and watching her shadow shift on the wall.
By far, the most exciting, beautiful, touching moments of the night came when Lauren Feldman and Megan Gendell performed a duet, using only one trapeze. Without pretension their dance told a story of love. While their emotion was moving in its simplicity, the risks they took on the trapeze were anything but simple. The audience gasped time and again as Feldman and Gendell took turns being caught by one another, just moments before reaching the ground. Feldman, dropping ten feet in the air, only to be caught by the ankles in the hands of Gendell, portrayed the trust that is the foundation of any love. The aerial “tricks” did not overpower the idea of dance, or the emotion in the performance. The trapeze was a tool to tell a charming love story, but the affection between the dancers is what emanated, and what caused some of the guests to leap up into a standing ovation at the end of this number. It was the most delightful love story I've ever seen danced.
Knowing this show was a cabaret, I did not expect a strong narrative, as I had been given in LOOP, Tangle Movement Arts’ last performance. However, I did arrive hoping for a thread that would tie all the pieces of Tell It Slant together in some way. Although Tell It Slant was meant to revolve around feminine relationships, I didn't recognize this theme in some of the performances. A few of the dances were solos that left me wondering what the message was, and a couple others seemed to rely on the song lyrics to convey the message and the emotion, while the movement seemed unrelated and more like a series of aerial tricks. I would have loved to see more duets or group dances within Tell It Slant, in which the dancers complimented and strengthened one another through their movement and told more of a story of “relationships.” That being said, I remain thoroughly intrigued by Tangle Movement Arts as an aerial dance troupe. They are original, bold and brave as a group, made up of strong, confident, enticing individuals.
At the end of the show, the audience gave a hearty applause, and some stood up again in ovation. The guests next to me expressed to each other how impressed they were with the aerial feats performed and said, “I didn’t even know you could do that with your body!” With unlimited potential, and ever-flowing creativity, I’m already excited to see what Tangle Movement Arts delivers next.
Photograph by Michael Ermilio.
Article by Hannah Lorenzo.
