Review: We're in your Future by Alyson Dolan
by David Glen Robinson

 

Just when this reviewer thought he’d seen every possible move in modern/contemporary dance, along comes We’re in Your Future by Alyson Dolan. Dolan produces shows calling on the talents of her friends, students, and colleagues. And the dances are invariably sublime, not to be missed. A major plus point for her dance shows is the Café Dance venue in west Austin, a small, warm, truly intimate space with a marley dance floor from wall to wall. The possibilities are near-endless with that, but the potential carries with it a certain rule starting to make Café Dance famous: everyone must take off shoes before stepping onto the floor, to avoid scuffs or damage.

 

 

Once properly vetted for the space, one enters to see six beautiful performers in nonmatching costumes. Their beauty doesn’t get in the way of their talent and the dynamic movement that filled an evening. Dolan choreographed this show as a seamless whole but included much variety. We’re in Your Future was well structured as a large dance piece of about forty minutes' duration. It opened with a sequence of high-energy solos by each of the dancers, driven by loud rock music. After that, Dolan’s choreography gave us  dancer combinations ranging from duos to the full sextet.

 

Tongue-in-cheek humor emerged as a strong theme. Sometimes one or more dancers in an especially difficult passage would drop out, start an audible conversation, and wander off. In theatre that's called dropping character, perhaps to start a metatheatrical aside or monologue. These were intentional breakups, always surprising. In some but not all cases, they served as punctuation or spacers between movement sections. In one choreographic turn not seen before, a drawling voice in voiceover commented, “That’s nice. But now let’s see it again from where Lisa jumped out of the line and started that section.” And they did. All the dancers stopped what they were doing; the music stopped; and the dancers walked back to the line in question, except on the opposite side of the roomand turned the other way Then they repeated the section exactly as requested, so that the audience saw it in mirror image. Funny, but also unusually innovative.

 

In another strong example, Lisa del Rosario recorded voice spoke of loudly singing in public as a child and mortifying her family. The dance proceeded slowly and almost in silence through that spoken text. Then del Rosario, live on stage, burst out with Whitney Huston’s “I Will Always Love You.” It was an obvious set-up, but it worked like gangbusters, with del Rosario fully committed to the schtick.

 

An exceptionally dry bit came in Jahna Bobolia’s solo. The work was challenging, and the audience concentrated intently to follow the progress and purposes of her dance—while a glance to the side showed three dancers lying face down in a row onstage, like logs, fully relaxed. Contemporary dance is full of ways to convey great contrasts in energy levels, and this scenario gave us an excellent example.

 

All the dancers were featured repeatedly, their strong dance pushing the envelopes of their talents. Together, they formed a powerful ensemble. The dance itself conveyed elements of what used to be called postmodern dance, with breakout spoken-word dialogues and pedestrian walking and gesturing to end and begin long passages. They did not address the audience directly or talk about the production itself. In this they avoided metatheatrical elements. All the dancers were outstanding.

 

Erica Patricia Saucedo is an athletic performance master, as she demonstrates show after show. She seems to specialize in double kicks while leaping, kicks that change her point of balance and move her across the space. These are movements hard to master and harder to describe. We promise to keep watching.

 

Lisa del Rosario played expertly with the humorous themes of the show, showing great flexibility and contrast from the deeply meditative performance she gave in the recent SMORG. Errin Delperdang exuded the confidence of mastery of every movement and gesture she was asked to make, always smooth, and her timing was impeccable. Liliana Zapatero is coming into her own as a movement master, and she never fails to bring into her performances the great expressiveness of her face and eyes.

 

Lisa Schreck is also on her own road to mastery, and much like Delperdang shows great confidence and skill in performing complex movement passages. Jahna Bobolia shows the confidence of her powerful body, and her solos and group work clearly express empowerment and strength. Much of that expressiveness rests with her arms and legs and especially her eyes.

 

Stephen Pruitt lit the show expertly, and Drew Silverman composed and assembled existing music for the soundtrack as well as recording the text stories of the dancers. Leila Louise Henley provided additional music for Silverman’s soundtrack.

 

 

 

The finale was a reprise of the solo sequence that opened the show. The music was softer, and the movements more sedate, although the pace was not in any sense slow. The audience gained a more thoughtful look at the dancers' virtuosic movements. Seeing the solos performed again evoked memories of the beginnings. It was like remembering old friends. The closing sequence gave the entire show a feeling of familiarity and more accessibility with the spark of: “Ah! I remember that.” It reminded us that we had just taken an impressive journey of dance and now were coming home.

 

While writing this text, this reviewer received the notice that Jeanne-Claire Van Ryzin’s web magazine Sightlines will ceased publication on May 1. The decision is a blow to the shaky state of arts journalism in Austin. Van Ryzin's next project was not reported in the announcement, but we wish her the greatest success in that endeavor, whatever it may be. Change is inevitable, as she wrote in the announcement. We take the lesson also as a warning that art is not inevitable.

 

We all need to support and savor the transitory magnificence of high art born of talent, sweat, and training. We’re in Your Future is certainly one such work, and we hope that Alyson Dolan and friends remain regularly present in our futures.

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We're in your Future
by Alyson Dolan
Alyson Dolan

April 29 - 30, 2023

Café Dance, Hancock Avenue, Austin