Review: Relative Space by DA! Theatre Collective
by Michael Meigs

Like an extra gift crammed down into the toe of your Christmas stocking, Relative Space is deftly tucked into the off-hours at Hyde Park Theatre on 43rd street. It’s rare that you can get to enjoy theatre or dance on a Sunday-to-Wednesday cycle, unless some touring company cruises through town in that usually “dark” period. This short frolic rolls at 5 p.m. on Sunday and 8 p.m. each following evening, time-sharing the playing space with Xmas Unwrapped, A Burlesque Christmas. 

 

Relative Space features four gals and three guys in lively, happy frolic, bouncing off every corner 
and angle in the oddly configured Hyde Park Theatre. Choreographer Lisa del Rosario (pictured) stations her dancers anonymously in the audience, then comes hustling in as the last spectator for the show. She seats herself, blinks those big eyes of hers, does another couple of bits of business, then initiates a clapping, slapping rhythm that’s gradually taken up by the dancers, still in their seats. 

There’s lots of back and forth among members of the company, all of whom get serenely happy grins and enjoy banter both verbal and physical among them. Del Rosario has sewn together a popping series of skits, mimes and dances, in which she happily exploits the oddities of the Hyde Park Theatre space – from the offstage johns to the entryway to the light booth to that odd triangular stage. The piece starts in pure clapping rhythm and accelerates with Travis Cooper’s bouncy, percussive score. 

Musicians were in a recess tucked away upstage out of my line of sight. Drums, keyboard, violin and bass were omnipresent, but the dancers captured our attention so completely that we lost the melodies, absorbing instead only the motions and the beat.

Their romp moved from competitive chalking on that blank blue-grey wall to the guys’ doo-wop trio without 
words to somersaults, tumbles, and king-of-the-mountain scrambles.

The sense of fun recalled strongly Yellowtape Construction Company’s thumping raging explosion of light and marvelous texture of last October, choreographed by Amanda Butterfield and featuring Rosario. That all-female piece played with childhood games; Relative Space, in contrast, offers a rapidly unfolding spectacle of healthy young people exhilarating in the power and suppleness of their bodies and in the discovery of one another. There’s lots of tumbling, rolling and non-professional gymnastics. 

Del Rosario and her crew have lively senses of humor. For example, Del Rosario and Jude Hickey do variations of a mime of a man and woman on a sofa or park bench that put one in mind of comedy sketches from silent films. 

Dancers Heather Huggins and Stephanie Denson will show from time to time a deft turn that indicates some serious dance training in their pasts. But for the most part this is action that we like to think that we ourselves might accomplish, if only we had the occasion and the sheer inspiration to do so. We could not, in fact – or at least, many of us couldn’t find the suppleness or adequate enduring energy for such a spectacle. But the message is friendly, open and inclusive; these actor/dancers are in no way arrogant with their gifts.

That might surprise, given the Russian name and Russian-influenced manifesto of the company: “DA! Is a way of life. Rooted in contemporary Russian acting and movement theory, DA! Is a desire to explore our outer limits and our inner core. DA! Is more than one person or one idea; it is a Collective. Believing in the power of that collective, DA! Seeks to carve out spaces and times where artists of all kinds can train, play, discover, create and produce together. . . .”

Da’s message is elaborated on its website, along with some whimsical interviews with company members.  

The company has been presenting Heron and Crane, an interactive assembly for primary schoolers, and it promises for Frontera Fest in February 57 Boyfriends, a one-woman show by Stephanie Denson, as well as a fall 2009 modern adaptation of Anna Karenina (a movement-intensive version). 

So drop by the Hyde Park Theatre on that off-cycle, take a load off, and enjoy – as cast member Kirk German reminded us, this show will cost you a fraction of a ticket to The Nutcracker. And it could be more fun, too.

Review by kelseyk on Austinist.com: "a joyous rumpus in what has become one of our most beloved spaces."

 

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Relative Space
by Lisa del Rosario and DA! Theatre Collective
DA! Theatre Collective