Emily Hansel
RAWdance’s 20th Anniversary Home Season, which ran October 24–27 at ODC Theater, referenced the company’s past as well as its future by featuring four new works by a variety of choreographers. The program began with Social Circle, which was choreographed by the company’s namesake co-artistic directors, Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein. Four women wearing hoops skirts and petticoats on the outside of their pants or skirts danced to voiceovers of restrictive rules for ballroom dancing layered on top of a piano track. The highly capable dancers whirled their torsos around, whipped their loose hair back and forth, threw their limbs in all directions, swung their weight through space, and spun across the stage. The piece incorporated some structures (lots of unison, movements derived from ballet, etc.) which could in some contexts be considered restrictive, but the movement quality and vocabulary were more free, released, and easeful.
Next up was Refer, choreographed and performed by company members Kelly Del Rosario and Erin Yen. The two addressed each other and the audience with silly facial expressions and maintained a playful energy on top of very planned and precise choreography. Their calculated and coordinated gestures were executed in perfect time to the driving, upbeat music by Aaron M Gold. I imagine this highly synchronized duet might do well on TikTok with its kitschy gestures, references to hip hop vocabulary, exaggerated facial expressions, and huge cheers from the audience.
Good Grief, choreographed by company members Nick Wagner and Stacey Yuen began with a slow, slightly melancholic processional, as four dancers walked into the space one at a time. The most exciting moments of the piece occurred close to the end when the dancers started going offstage to add water to their long hair. As the dancers moved through space, water droplets caught the stage lights dispersing into patterns in mid air and on the black floor.
The program closed with another piece choreographed by Ryan and Wendy titled Escape, which gave us unabashedly showy moves by five fabulously sassy performers. Escape brought the audience on a summery resort vacation complete with sunglasses, halter tops, beachy button downs, patio chairs, beach balls, and an inflatable kiddie pool.The dancers slid and pirouetted on top of beach towels. Kelly Del Rosario and Leesha Zieber did poolside calisthenics. Tajh Malik Stallworth led a compelling game of “Tajh Says” (Tajh says continuous step touch, Tajh says laugh, Tajh says stop laughing). Zieber, whose dancing exuded strength and reliability, visited each member of the cast in a rotating duet sequence. At a microphone, Erin Yen performed a stand-up comedy set with no words, only gestures, facial expressions, and pre-recorded laughter. All of this was met with genuine laughs from the audience — clearly a crowd full of adoring RAWdance fans.
Emily Hansel is a San Francisco-based dancer, choreographer, dance teacher, arts administrator, and artist advocate.
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