'Path' New Meaning in Elements

Author: Kate DeForest

This year's offering from the Dance Company of Middlebury is the strongest I have seen in the three years I have been attending their performances. Previewed late last year, and performed in Jan. 18 and 19, "Path" is a journey in dance through the external elements that shape our awareness: earth, wood, sun and moon, water, wind and fire — each element comprising one segment of the performance. Far from distancing the body from these elements, "Path" translates those elements and impressions originating in them through the dancers to the audience. In marrying the conscious body and movement of dance to the unthinking elements "Path" created a didactic program of movement with meaning in relation to ourselves and our environment.

The program opened to the sound of gravel crunching, as the company walked across the stage, clad in earthen tones and flowing neutral pants, wrapping around their fronts, slit up to the thigh on the sides. Much care was taken with the set itself, which included sculpture and paintings by Herb Ferris. The paintings were suspended above the middle of the studio in three panels, the first and third depicted dragons, the second waves.

Wooden poles were also suspended in two semi-circular curves, one around a large, flower-like sculpture, another cupping a roughly hewn bench. In the foreground there was a stone basin upon a pedestal and a large, loosely constructed pitcher. The way in which the dancers interacted with the set placed special emphasis in the natural quality of the materials, and the seamlessness with which they moved and used the objects paralleled the meaning of the movements.

The phrasing of each segment was not particularly surprising — "Earth" had heavier motion, accepting rather than denying gravity, "Water" was fluid, "Fire" more seductive and volatile — but each segment was so well-executed that the emphasis shifted to the more subtle innovations, a certain motion of the hand, a tilt of the head or the repetition of a gesture.

The dance was cyclic in nature, the path from the most to least tangible, as the elements shifted from solid and earthbound to celestial, to liquid, to air and fire, and back to earth with the discovery, as noted in the program under the "Return" segment, "We are of the earth, not separate but same."

The first soloist, Sean Hoskins '02, displayed admirable control and precision, while the next duet of Meg Hamilton '02 and Benjamin Calvi '02, with soloist Shruthi Mahalingaiah '98, who exuded both strength and grace, presented an image very aware of their respective sexes. Throughout "Path," male and female dancers were utilized with specificity in both their motion and emotion, creating and breaking relationships with each other and the spaces they inhabited.

Perhaps the most striking feminine solo belonged to Katie MacDonald '03, as she danced the role of fire. She embodied the seductive and powerful nature of the element, seeming to induce the other dancers to follow her lead as she swept slowly among them, gathering them up behind her as she led them in a snake-like spiral across the floor.

The athleticism of Jareb Keltz '01 was challenged in his solo during "Wind," which demanded the strength of an elephant and the endurance of a marathon runner. Keltz prevailed, however, even against the gale generated by the other dancers' pounding hands, pursed lips and puffed cheeks.

"Path" is a celebration of how humans can connect, through body and spirit and the art the combination can produce, to the earth from which we grow. The combination of strong percussion and haunting flutes, the environmental set and the dancers and their motion, created a finished piece that was refined and deliberate, yet managed to retain the drive and pulse of an ancient and ageless energy.