“Les Ecailles de la Memoire”

The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s new production Les Ecailles de la Memoire, or “The Scales of Memory,” elucidates the complicated issues of memory, love, culture among the people of the African Diaspora. It is an intercontinental production involving the Compagnie Jant-Bi from Senegal and Brooklyn’s Urban Bush Women. The mixture of dance style, language, and shared history give Les Ecailles de la Memoire its flavor; however, the desperation to develop a narrative and characters takes away from the magnificent performance.
As the Senegalese men leap into the air like firecrackers, arms and legs akimbo, one realizes that these are not amateurs. Both the Bush Women and the Compagnie Jant-Bi see every movement through to absolute fruition – their broad and powerful style demands the viewer’s attention. Unfortunately, the gusto with which the performance opened does not linger throughout the entire show.
After the first thirty minutes more importance is placed on character development and storyline than on the actual dancing. In an attempt to illustrate the journey from Africa to the West, the performers begin slowing down their movements and softening their technique, thus resulting in highly interpretive, conceptual dance. References to labor and slavery, such as the clanking of shackles or marching in sync, are littered throughout the production, and although they are occasionally affecting, they fall short of poignancy due to the lack of concrete character development. The audience is aware that there are seven men and seven women; however, the distinction of individual personae is never established, and the dancers are never elevated above anything other than performers.
Ultimately, Les Ecailles de la Memoire committed an amateur offense that soiled the entire production. If the dancers had been given full reign to demonstrate their magnificent capability, undoubtedly a standing ovation would be in store. Instead, the audience saunters out of the theater, freshly awaken, proclaiming, “I’m certain there was a narrative to that! I guess I’m far too prosaic to get it.”