Feats of dazzling footwork
“Barkha Dance Company: A Live Music & Kathak Dance Performance” | Sloan Performing Arts Center, University of Rochester: Smith Theater | Sept. 12 | From $15 | All ages
Kathak, one of India’s oldest forms of dance, typically centers around storytelling. What’s done by Barkha Patel — a visionary artist trained in kathak who also floats through the Hindustani and Sanskrit languages — both transcends and honors its history. Patel’s beautiful and dazzling choreography, performed with a singular panache and athletic precision, elevates the style she has mastered while molding it into a new artistic expression of her own making.
Patel came to town to display two works: “Soham Har Damru,” a rhythmic celebration of the god Shiva (and all creation); and an in-progress version of “Ramti Aave,” a sensual and highly conceptual showcase centering around desire. Patel presents the works together as “Aham | mahA.”
To stage both, she enlists three skilled musicians — tabla percussion, string melodies from a sarangi, and Indian classical vocals — who literally power her movements. Indian rhythms dictate the beat of Patel’s motions, including 14-beat cycles foreign to Western ears. Between the first program’s cycles, Patel explained the nature of the dance to the audience and encouraged participation. “Every time I spin, you’re supposed to clap,” she later said with a smile at a post-show Q&A.
The experience is akin to a lecture punctuated by mesmerizing feats of footwork. Patel wears ankle bells called ghungroo, and her feet sound heavy as stone on the floor as she stomps and taps in time to the rhythm. Yet she always looks as light as air.
And then, she reinvents herself, embodying the playfulness of the goddess Kali by letting her hair down and throwing rose petals in the crowd. For the second sequence, “Ramti Aave,” Patel stays low, writhing in flowing garments to reflect eroticism and independence, soundtracked in part by a reading from activist Audre Lorde. Patel is developing this 15-minute piece into a full program.
When she unveils it in full, the story will be too compelling to look away from. Just like every other spellbinding movement she flexes. —PATRICK HOSKEN
Coming to her senses
“Holy O” | Temple Theater | Sept. 14, 16, 17, 21 | $15 | 21+ (mature content)
The experience of “Holy O” begins as soon as tickets are scanned. A digital program is available, but also — here’s a bundle of shiny gold pipe cleaners. In the program, instructions on what to do with them. Spoiler-but-not-really: they’re for a homemade halo, which audience members are encouraged to build and wear for the duration of the show. And on Wednesday night, most of the 15 or so audience members did. This is Fringe, after all.
The cavernous Temple Theater has been rearranged into a loose blackbox, with two rows of chairs on each of the four sides around what is the stage. Clothes are haphazardly scattered around the stage, nearby is an empty suitcase and beside a black folding chair is a woman sleeping on the ground.
For the moment she ‘comes to,’ it’s clear Vera — full name Verity, but only her grandmother can call her that — is on a journey, one which the audience (saints) join her on throughout the next hour. The big question: will she become a Catholic nun? First, she needs to sort through her old belongings and figure out what’s appropriate for her new life — beginning with the clothes.
“I’m going through this thing where I can’t decide what to wear,” she confesses. “If I pick the wrong shirt, it could ruin my day.”
And through a series of monologues and audience interaction in this one-woman show, Vera reveals that she’s actually gone through, well, a whole lot of things. Typical human things. Funny moments. Hard things to recount. Religious trauma and friendship and maybe-love and rebuilding. Don’t let the name “Holy O” suggest a plot; this show contains depth and bravery beyond the humor.
It’s quite easy to understand why the creative team behind “Holy O” has won awards at Edinburgh Fringe, Kennedy Center Page to Stage and DC Theater Arts. Houston-based writer/performer Lauren Hance is clearly comfortable on any stage; she has mastered the art of conversational, immersive theater in a way that is both approachable and moving. And while the show has many laugh-out-loud moments, by the end there were very few dry eyes, even for this hard-to-convince critic. —LEAH STACY
Sensory cocktail
“Flight” | Salena’s | Sept. 13 | All ages | SOLD OUT
By balancing a mastery of contemporary dance vocabulary with the charm of improvisation on Wednesday evening, the movement of “Flight” matched its alcoholic counterparts — equally refreshing and curious. Co-directed by dancer Sarah Jacobs and musician Greg Woodsbie, the performance was an experiment that succeeded both as an enjoyable aesthetic experience and a stirring piece of art.
Jacobs, alongside dancers Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp and Ripp Greatbatch, performed three works, each inspired by a cocktail. The dancers and accompanist Woodside created on the spot, using tastes and elements of the drinks to kickstart choreography and composition.
It was immediately apparent the artists are experienced in their art forms. Pasquarello Beauchamp and Jacobs mirrored one another with grounded gestures that flowed from their core. Greatbatch seemed to move in another atmosphere — one without gravity. His long limbs accentuated his style, which existed in a limitless range of motion. The dancers were confident in their connections, trusting one another to contribute important insight to their joint creation.
Using just an electric keyboard and his voice, Woodsbie effortlessly tapped into the vibes of the evening through improvisation. “I’m living in the world of metaphor,” he said. The metaphoric world of “Flight” encompassed the music, dance and cocktails, each feeding off the other. The pieces were intentional, never chaotic or miscalculated, demonstrating how organic and enjoyable improvisation can be when it’s done well. The whole experience of “Flight” was grassroots and laidback, which helped the talent and vision of the artists take centerstage, or, in the case of Fringe venue Salena’s, center patio. —SYDNEY BURROWS
Life everlasting
“Negotiating Immortality” | ROC Cinema | Sept. 18 | $10 | 13+ (for language)
At first glance, attending “Negotiating Immortality” is a gamble. The Fringe guide description is nebulous at best, and the only visual is an animation that feels almost AI-generated. But the folks behind October First Media and Steven James Media must have quite a following already — the 5:40 p.m. showing at ROC Cinema was full on Wednesday evening (rush hour traffic and limited parking options notwithstanding).
As the audience settled into cushy rolling chairs in ROC Cinema’s renovated theater, there was a murmur of “another debate, eh?” The stage was set with two podiums facing off game-show style, a perhaps unwelcome sight for those fresh off the previous night’s presidential debate. The production team gave a few extra minutes for latecomers to trickle in, encouraging audience members to order food and drinks on the menus in front of them (a nice perk at this newer Fringe venue). The smell of fresh popcorn lingered in the air throughout the show.
Split into two acts and running about 60 minutes with no intermission, “Negotiating Immortality” begins in the year 2031 with a debate between — wait for it — a religious professor (Michael Koldan) and a scientist (Michael Roberts). The debate centers on a new treatment, “The Elm,” that will give humans an option to slow their aging process, albeit at a steep price. Woven throughout the act one debate is high-production video footage of both the show’s host, Sydney St. James (a convincingly journalistic Mary Mendez Rizzo) and a presidential candidate (also played by Roberts) and his chief-of-staff (the always on-point Reuben Tapp).
While the narrative is winding and a bit verbose, the show’s overall premise is interesting; a dystopian plot with religious overtones a la “The Giver.” (Steven James Media is closely tied with several faith-based film projects locally, so no big surprises there.) But the most impressive bit of the show is Roberts himself, who so successfully shapeshifts on stage and on screen that if the program didn’t credit him with four roles, his repeated appearances might go unnoticed. From a heretical pastor and a science-leaning doctor to a presidential hopeful and a special agent, Roberts’s focused performances are truly the show’s foundation. —LEAH STACY
This article appears in Sep 1-30, 2024.
