Boston College, Boston, MA.
December 1, 2023 (seen by way of livestream and recorded video).
Nozama Dance Collective has all the time been daring and brought dangers. That’s proper within the identify; “Nozama” is a play on “Amazon”, a largely derogatory time period for a robust lady who takes up her house. The corporate’s 10th anniversary program, RECLAIM, honored these years of tenacious artwork making, and set the stage for a few years of that to come back. Additionally notable in this system was a cohesive aesthetic, but additionally room for every artist’s distinctive imaginative and prescient inside that stylistic path. It’s clear that this can be a group of artists who match collectively hand-in-glove as fierce creators.
It was a prolonged program, maybe feeling too lengthy for some viewers members. But, I wouldn’t envy anybody tasked with deciding what to ship to the slicing room ground; each work felt deserving of time on that stage. It was a full feast of gorgeous dance for all to come back and luxuriate in. Commendable works from Visitor Artists Artwork UnEarths, Collective Moments Dance, and Holly Stone had been additionally a part of that feast.
This system kicked off with Juliana Willey-Thomas’ if this….then what?, a piece each kinetically and conceptually wealthy. Gestures of exhausting geometric angles juxtaposed curvy spinal undulations – which the ensemble moved by way of with tenacity and assured readability. Motion in traces reminisced Trisha Brown’s Line up (1976). Willey-Thomas additionally wasn’t afraid to take the dangers of getting no rating (no sound at hand other than the dancers’ ft and breath) and moments of stillness – a problem for some viewers not accustomed to up to date dance. Mysterious abstraction was certainly at hand, however one which felt accessible by way of its tenacity.
Even with that abstraction, clear to me was a negotiation between the solitary and communal. Soloists broke from the group, however then rejoined the group’s unison motion – sufficient instances to develop into a cycle, a motif. In direction of the work’s finish, the dancers shaped a clump and reached up. It felt as if in neighborhood, they had been lastly totally empowered.
Creative Director Dana Alsamsam’s Day to Day continued the sturdy, fiery high quality of motion at hand. The dancers’ relationship with the desk – on, and beneath, round it – cleverly spoke to energy dynamics, as properly permission to talk and take up house. A part of me craved extra easeful, softer motion moments, much less pushed by the rating’s power. But the performers’ pure command of the vocabulary was such that I might, general, haven’t any complaints. Spoken phrase within the rating mentioned the challenges, and significance, of valuing oneself. These dancers held the stage with sufficient confident presence to make that message ring true.
Nell Mancini’s resolute and thought-provoking As we eventual – be – got here subsequent. One performer wrote whereas the 2 others moved. I imagined that these dancers and their actions, their interactions and tales, had been the creations of the third performer’s thoughts and pen. Their motion was stuffed with pure spirit and bodily braveness. The ambiance later softened with hugs, serving to fingers, and luscious unity in motion. They ended with grooving out and lovingly acknowledging one another – a candy human second.
Katie Logan’s Tripper got here subsequent — stuffed with morphing, molding, and resonating geometry in motion, each on the physique stage and within the wider stage house. The blue of the backdrop mirrored the final frontiers of the evening sky and the ocean. Dancers embraced, after which described a circle with one arm – discovering new potentialities in house. The lights went down on them doing simply that. I puzzled, are others’ hearts their very own type of frontier? Will we ever totally uncover them?
5 Levels, one other by Willey-Thomas, successfully constructed the grey, somber feeling of grief. Accented motion illustrated the irritating plateaus throughout the therapeutic course of. The dancers moved with an applicable weightedness, but in addition revealed interior energy by their pure bodily power. By embraces, weight sharing, and unison motion, in addition they illustrated the energy that they present in one another. To finish the piece, they walked off collectively – cementing that sense of energy in solidarity.
Shedding, a solo from Alsamsam and danced by Logan, cogently illustrated the “shedding” of what doesn’t serve by way of shedding clothes layers. Agitated motion softened with every “shedding.” All through, nonetheless, intriguing articulations and the movement of momentum probed the chances of every joint. Alsamsam’s Mom/Daughter employed narrative with simply the best sprint of abstraction to discover the timeless theme proper within the title. Simply sufficient specificity additionally enhanced the universality at hand. Considerate gestures, akin to a gradual inserting of a hand in care, additionally demonstrated the facility within the quietest, softest moments.
I Am, from Mari Napoli, stored the stage crammed with pure dynamism and ferocity. The dancers’ myriad comings and goings mirrored the rating’s sonic multiplicity. They weren’t afraid to leap large, attain far, and take up all attainable house. That joined with spoken phrase on rejecting the concept artwork and artists are nugatory, the work felt like a robust testomony to standing proud as makers and sharers of their very own creation. It ended with one dancer onstage; on the identical time, proud artistry may be fairly a solitary expertise.
The Phoenix Rises, a restaging of a 2017 work, kicked off the second act. As former Creative Director and Co-Founder Gracie Baruzzi famous, it felt much more poignant post-COVID. As with different works in this system, a stress between the person and the collective resonated by way of the work. But what resonated louder was how these people lifted one another up: actually, in highly effective accomplice work, and energetically, with the ensemble’s bodily power and presence changing into greater than the sum of its elements.
Alsamsam’s Shedding Religion created a non secular air within the ether on prime of a basis of rock-solid approach and athleticism. The soloist, Willey-Thomas, regarded as much as the heavens as ethereal piano strokes rang by way of the theater. Ease oozed by way of lengthy traces, certain footwork, and escalating depth of motion. She remained accessibly human by way of every breath, every motion, every second.
Awakening, from Olivia Moriarty, supplied each subtlety and energy on a number of ranges. Alsamsam moved with deep absorption in every kinetic texture. She offered an inner bearing, but the pure energy and measurement of her motion was an providing that prevented a way of self-absorption. Mirroring, call-and-response, and unison motion transpired as soon as Madison Florence joined her. An Exhibit A of the unstated connection between them that resulted: whereas mendacity back-to-back on the ground, they concurrently reached up and located one another’s fingers.
Florence’s Everyone Needs This definitely shifted the ambiance within the theater. 5 dancers moved to a spoken phrase rating about physique picture struggles widespread to just about all girls, and the way that shifts as we age. The sturdy but easy, pleasantly accented high quality of those shifting girls in black felt like denunciation of dangerous societal pressures to be or look any sure method. Jazzy vocabulary, with a pinch of vogueing, communicated the discharge of such narratives and a joyful embrace of the self – with the fellowship of different girls doing the identical.
Alsamsam’s Untold, Retold topped off the present, and stored its layered abundance – each in idea and on the physique stage – ringing by way of to the final blackout. Gestures of closing off the mouth, and babbling sounds within the rating, established a theme of communication. Motion was built-in and powerful, but – successfully for the theme at hand – additionally rang with disharmony.
In a brand new sense of assertiveness, the rating proclaimed “The world will know who I’m…my story won’t be mistold or silenced.” From there, a brand new stirring of power emerged. The dancers claimed house extra as they moved: stepping up and being identified. Serving to one another rise increased by way of partnering evinced human connection serving to in that effort. The work concluded with one dancer stepping ahead into the highlight and the rating proclaiming “and so my story begins” – after which a puff.
Generally stepping ahead is scary. But reclaiming is value it. The fruits of taking dangers are value it. Nozama Dance Collective’s 10 years of making and sharing daring, tenacious work is definitely proof proper within the pudding there. Congratulations, and right here’s to many extra!
By Kathryn Boland of Dance Informa.
