Last night I attended the final performance of the modern dance group Jessica Lang Dance. My expectations were not high, since modern dance has been slowly disintegrating into a vague, mushy art form. I was floored by the creativity and artistic boldness of Lang’s choreography and immensely enjoyed the entire performance.

My favorite routines of the night are as follows:

1. Thousand Yard Stare
2. Sweet Silent Thought
3. Tesseracts of Time
4. Solo Bach
5. The Calling

            “Solo Bach” (2008) – This piece was an excellent way to open the program, as it was a light and airy number. As the name indicates, this dance was a solo performed by one man, with a heavy ballet influence. Most of Lang’s dancers, including Lang herself, were trained at Julliard, which explains the clear ballet influence. Throughout the performance, I noticed a trend of off-center turns and turning jumps. One of the qualities I most love about ballet and modern dance is when the dancer provides a shape for the music. Their motions provide a physical representation of what we hear, which is an indication of incredibly successful choreography. These multiple spinning movements became somewhat repetitive but were not at all displeasing to watch. The choice of classical music for a modern dance piece seemed to be an unconventional one, since most choreographers seek to break from tradition. In contrast, Lang’s work simultaneously embraces tradition and revitalizes it into a new form.

“Sweet Silent Thought” (2016) – This piece was performed by two men and two women, all dressed in angelic white. This piece was set a haunting spoken-word track, in which the words were not very clear. The program indicates that they were reading Shakespeare’s sonnets 30, 64, 40, 105 and 71. Sonnet 30 clearly inspired the work, as it opens with the line, “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought….” In addition to the endless spins, this dance introduces the audience to Lang’s second vise, which are lifts and suspensions. The suspensions in this routine evoked an ethereal, other-worldly quality in the dancers. Lang’s experimentation with varying heights was not only visually pleasing but intentionally conveyed themes of life and death. Love and passion were clearly communicated through physical contact and space between dancers. This piece reminded me of Ulysses Dove’s “Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven,” in which angelic figures explore themes of life, death, love and loss.

“Thousand Yard Stare” (2015)- This piece was a complete departure from the last one, as there was a large group of men and women in army green tank tops and pants. The dance moved through phases, beginning with militaristic marching and lifting of the feet in silence. The dancers then transitioned into a creative stomp-dance, in which percussion rhythms were made with their hands and feet. The routine soon became more fluid, yet continued to explore the relationship that exists between individuals and groups. I found the dance to be asking questions of what it means to be an individual or part of a larger group. There was also a theme of dissatisfaction, as members of the company were constantly reaching a single hand out, with fingers splayed, to grasp something that they desired (or believed they desired). The use of shows in this piece was incredibly innovative. I spent time watching how the shadows were interacting and compared them to the physical movements of the dancers.

One of the most beautiful aspects of this piece was how the dancers would lie, roll, spring, drape, hang and move across one another’s backs. At one point, a male dancer was “breaking” his own leg with his foot, multiple times in a row. Another dancer moved toward him, and allowed the “weak” dancer to drape himself across his back. Throughout this piece, I recognized a consistent theme of unity and solidarity. It was saying that we all face struggles in life, and the only way to carry one another’s burdens is being willing to share them.

Another memorable part of this dance was when the whole group formed a “tunnel” by stacking on top of one another in a downward dog position. When people began peeling off the end of the line to army crawl through, the militaristic themes were clearly being reinforced. Another incredible moment occurred when a woman from the front was lifted on top of the caterpillar, only to be naturally slid into a seated positon in the middle of the row. The members of this company are incredible athletes, possessing immense flexibility as well as super human strength. Both men and women were lifting each other which such agility, the audience hardly noticed the physical feats that were taking place.

 

            “The Calling” (2006) – This piece consisted of one woman, standing in a white dress with a skirt so long it covered the entire stage. She was limited to mostly arm movements, but I was pleasantly surprised when she picked up the hem of the dress later in the piece. The piece was set to “O Maria, stella maris” which translates to “Hail Star of the Sea.” Although the dancer’s movements were limited, she was still able to express an incredible amount of emotion and allude the religious imagery of the music.

 

“Tesseracts of Time” (2015) – The final piece of the night was separated into four parts- I. Under, II. In, III. On, IV. Over. It was made too obvious that each piece would correspond to the spatial orientation for which it was named. However, all the pieces were interesting and incredibly diverse from one another.

The first piece, “Under,” could have been evoking imagery of the “underworld.” The large group of dancers were in black on a very dark stage. The accompaniment was the sound of clanking jars, which became uncomfortable to hear as the volume increased. The dancers were animalistic it their movements, appearing frenzied and clustering into groups with rapid, repeated movements. The second piece, “In,” included a 3D video of the dancers, making geometric patterns and hanging off of various black and white shapes. The dancers seemed like automatons in their animated forms, which was both intriguing and unsettling. The portion of the piece was more focused on visual spectacle than dance. However, I commend Lang for taking an artistic risk.

The third piece, “On,” was characterized by white, geometric structures that the dancers moved across in their routine. This piece was unremarkable, but the transition into the fourth piece was an intense, sci-fi style spectacle. The sounds were immense, but dancer’s role was more geometric than fantastic. The fourth piece, “Over,” was the most beautiful of the group and was a lovely way to end the show. Lang’s interpretation of “over” was visualized in human flight. One of my favorite moments of this routine was when two men lifted a woman by her wrists and ankles, allowing her to truly fly across the stage. Once again, the dancers were wearing white and midway through the routine, a colored strip appeared on their side. The background and sets were also lighted in color, marking the last routine as the first appearance of color in the entire show. Lang’s artistic choices regarding color, lighting and set design were both innovative and visually pleasing.

I was amazed by the creativity and innovation presented by Jessica Lang’s choreography. She is not afraid to explore the entire expanse of the body and allow dancers to take up space. She clearly respects the art of modern dance, which is refreshing in a world that continues to redefine dance in any terms that suit their needs. My one note is that her choices in music seemed to clash with her choreography and sometimes detracted from the exquisiteness of her dance. However, I truly enjoyed the performance and would certainly go see her work again.