Locomotor: Confused, but Satisfied

I did not know what to expect when I found out that we were going to the Fall for Dance Festival. Honestly, I did not even know that it was so popular until I mentioned it to my boss and he freaked out. His excitement built up my expectations, but I still had no idea what I was going to watch. I thought we were just going to watch a lot of very traditional ballet performances, so I prepared myself to see tutus and tights. Imagine my surprise when I saw the first performance, “Shivashtakam (An Ode to Shiva).”

The four performances were all amazing and striking. I have never been exposed to so many different genres of dance; from Indian to ballet to a tap dance ensemble. The four of these performances were incredibly different and cannot be compared to one another; however, the piece that stuck with me the most was “Locomotor” by the Stephen Petronio Company. Having danced ballet for five years, as soon as the first pair of dancers stepped onto the stage, I knew that something was off. The lack of music was perhaps the loudest indicator that something was very wrong. Like the rest of the audience, I was confused when the music did not come on; I looked to my left and right, searching for confirmation that this was right. I came up with explanations as to why there was no music, perhaps the speakers broke or someone forgot to hit play and it was too late.

I studied the dancers’ movements, searching for the reason why I felt so unsettled by their performance. The first biggest hint was when one dancer plied almost backwards; her arms were behind her back, which was facing the audience, and her knees bent in such a way that you would not be able to tell what way she was facing by just looking at her knees. The sounds of the bells started to ring as more dancers, pairs at a time, began to enter the stage; however, they were not really entering the stage. They stepped or leaped backwards whenever entering, in such a way that it looked like they were going forward. The most amazing thing was when a pair was running and leaping backwards in circles. Their coordination, timing, and movements were so clean that I was baffled by how they were doing it, especially since their only method of keeping count was to listen to the same ticking sound of a clock.

Then, the beat dropped and everything got so much more intense. There were more dancers on the stage at once and they were going faster, except the one isolated dancer, who stood near the front. The isolated dancer would have his or her back towards the audience and move incredibly slowly, almost as though he or she was stuck. The recurring duet between the two male dancers was also extremely memorable. They were so passionate and I have never seen two men perform a duet in ballet before. They were also trying to hold each other up whenever one jumped into the air. Their duet was very powerful for me because they broke the traditional man-woman duet norm, which is very risky, but it worked so well.

Before I knew it, the performance was over and I had no idea what I just witnessed. I grabbed my playbill and searched for an explanation to all of this madness. “Locomotor addresses the elemental act of bodies traveling forward and backwards through space, on journeys that lead into new creations […]” With that line, it all fell into place. They were traveling through time and space, which explains their moving backwards and the ringing of the bell, which sounded like a clock ringing to tell you it is the next hour. Overall, this thirty-minute piece was truly outstanding. It was so unconventional that it is sure to impact anyone who watches it. Everything from their movement to their timing to the meaning behind the piece made it an extremely special performance.