Navigating Worlds and Memories Through Felt Dance Spaces

Wild Roots Dance presented an evocative night of dance last weekend at ARC Pasadena, titled “Dialogue + Sensations.” Co-directed by Kindra Windish and Vannia Ibarguen, Wild Roots Dance hosted this festival-style performance in which they invited an array of dance makers to enter a shared space with sensitivity and compassion. The result was an evening of dance that was personal and perceptive. In short, it was a space where the artists were invited to tell their stories through movement and design with patience, care, and love.

The show opened with a solo, Running Away, choreographed and performed by Alondra Zitlaly Perez. Zitaly Perez, dressed in patchwork pants, adorned her twin buns with fabric, adorned herself with a collection of jewelry pieces, and showcased her colorful nails. But within this ragdoll look, there was a rooted sensuality that contrasted the levity of the visual design. She began patiently seated on the floor, sliding her hands along her neck and back, and only gradually developed into standing balances with a yogic feel before coming to a gentle and unassuming close. The simplicity was balanced with a luxurious approach to being in the body – unabashed, centered, and courageous.

Aftershock, choreographed by Kindra Windish in collaboration with the performers, featured an ensemble cast of intergenerational dancers, dressed in satin pajamas in warm autumn tones. Performers Megan Fowler-Hurst, Denise Leitner, Jacki Nii, Tracy Philipsen, Marge Windish, and Christine Zak began seated in a line of chairs, muttering to themselves. The audience was able to grasp bits and pieces of each individual’s inner dialogue of distress. The dancers began sliding off the chairs, spilling forward onto the floor. The variety of wooden chairs conjured images of different homes in different times and spaces. The dancers performed shared movement vocabulary, such as leaning on the chairs and pushing their chairs through the space, but they never danced in unison; instead, they painted themselves through the space in fractal patterns of united similarity. Some dancers highlighted their athleticism with supple floorwork, easily sliding in their satin costumes and socks. The piece ended in an asymmetrical stage design with a pile of chairs covering one of the older adult dancers in the corner, as others were scattered around the space. One still seated in a chair muttered “again.” The ending, while seeming unresolved, also offered a sense that processing memories and grief is ongoing and is ever-resolving.

A solo by Santiago Rivera, entitled los angelitos nuestros, grappled with themes of belonging and rejection in a deeply conflicted work that incorporated live solo vocals by singer Teresa Flores and a spoken poem by Rivera. Perhaps the heaviest work on the program, Rivera sat in a raw cotton outfit, repeatedly giving birth to a baby doll. The work was as much theater and design as it was movement generation. Birthing an unwanted baby, he then smashed the doll with his foot, carelessly interacting with it, unleashing tragic images of being unwanted. The piece ended in a burst of athleticism set to Rivera’s poem “Caramel Boy,” in a brief moment of triumph and self-acceptance.

Stephanie Mizrahi choreographed and performed in a charming and innovative duet with Mizuki Sako, called handle with care. Lights came up on a stage set with strips of bubble wrap, and two bodies burst out of a large, cardboard packing box, wearing bright purple shorts. Rolling along the bubble wrap, they protected themselves with popping sounds. While I could have witnessed the world of two bodies being enwrapped in plastic packaging for a long time, the piece evolved into a satirical play on being cute, perfect, and sweet. It further developed into gymnastic partnering and athletic maneuvers that were fun to watch and highlighted the dancers’ incredible strength, coordination, and trust. While the vulnerability of the initial moments slightly faded, the piece compensated with charm and ingenuity.

Ghosts, choreographed by Marisa Malzone in collaboration with her duet partner Sinnamon Hauser, was a delicate duet that utilized shape, design, and texture between the two dancers dressed in white to create a world of memories. The piece began with the opening of a wooden box of memorabilia and came to a climax after much dancing when it was slammed shut again with the contents stored safely inside. The phrase work included circling and spiraling through space, sometimes in unison but often staggered in such a way that the two bodies became slippery and mesmerizing in a visual dialogue.

Vannia Ibarguen choreographed and performed a three-part solo entitled Path to Home, in which she first danced in a balletic style punctuated with choppy and frenetic gestures alluding to household chores. The piece took a surprising turn when she invited the audience to identify their definition of home for themselves, giving them time with the “Jeopardy!” theme playing lightly in the background. She then incorporated 3-4 audience suggestions into a short dance phrase. The piece concluded with a more open-hearted sensibility in which Ibarguen’s magic as a performer was more fully realized. She moved with a captivating display of freedom, flow, and expansiveness that left the audience wanting more.

Dorcas Roman collaborated with dancers Melodee Aguilera and Kimberly A Moldano in choreographing I am Not. The trio of dancers dressed in black began curled up on chairs set along the diagonal. The dancers stood and made shushing gestures with index fingers held up to their lips or out in space. The three dancers exchanged seats a few times in the piece, but seemed to stay in separate psychological spaces for much of the work. It wasn’t until the end that they came together in proximity for a final moment.

Megan Fowler-Hurst’s multi-media solo performance, Can you see me? took the show in an even more abstract direction with theatrical costume design (complete with costume changes), projections on a large screen and additional handheld projections by technicians in black. Fowler-Hurst’s exploration of self, both in the projected images and physical performance, highlighted the artist’s appreciation of abstraction and collage. The work began on the large screen with Fowler-Hurst’s image projected in highly filtered black and white, flashing on and off the screen. Larger than life facial expressions and distinct eye movement dominated the landscape before Fowler-Hurst entered the physical performance space along the brick wall wearing a nude top, and additional hand-held projections illuminated their body. The exploration of movements was reminiscent of a child watching themselves in a mirror, discovering how they look to themselves and the world. The piece ventured into non-linear territory, delving into self-reflection and self-expression through disjointed imagery, such as personification of a hand, a backward-facing mask, and a final mooning of the audience with the word “THEY” in black lettering on their tidy-whities.

The evening closed with a cast improvisation based on breath, as dancers dressed in gray and white gradually entered the space. Some exhibited power, cascading through the space with athletic floorwork, rolling, sliding, and inverting. Others entered delicately, walking the perimeter of the space with patience and sensitivity. They converged in a clump on the floor, breathing as one, as a few faces looked up on their inhale to see the world around them with hope.

The evening was well-attended, creating a sense of community among the dancers, choreographers, and audience members. Windish and Ibarguen supported the intimacy by including a brief statement about each of the works in the program, offering the audience insight into the world of the artist and the otherwise abstract themes they explored. While diverse in their backgrounds and aesthetic preferences, the artists all seem to share a value of process over product and the function of dance as a means of discovering inner truths and expressing human commonalities. Lighting design by Anneliese Du Bouley supported the intimate and honest nature of the work with subtle choices that always kept the movement and nostalgic feel of the works at the forefront.

It was interesting how many of the works incorporated a physical prop, costume, or lighting design to create an environment for their work to exist. Patchwork pants and painted nails, wooden chairs, boxes of memorabilia, plastic baby dolls, flashing projections, cardboard containers, and bubble wrap – each theatrical choice served as a window into a new world, holding the space and allowing the audience to witness each dancer navigating their relationships with these objects and the world they represent. In this way, the evening fully lived up to its title.

“Dialogue + Sensations” is a festival space for dance artists to take risks, express themselves, and be supported by their fellow artists and communities, making it a beautiful place for dance making and sharing.