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Ready.Set.Balance. asks questions and rocks hard
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Balance Dance Company performed a variety of pieces for its audience March 5 – 7 that truly posed more questions than they answered. Each work of modern dance did not disappoint as a piece of performance art, using nonverbal communication through physical interaction to explore themes as diverse as loneliness, the need for human intimacy and the sometimes disposable nature of people in our culture.
The program opened with “Longing For”, which was set to music by Sigur Rós and Bon Iver and featured an original guitar piece by Julia Ballenger, daughter of Boise State professor Bruce Ballenger. The work was an abstract treatment of feelings regarding people that make our lives better, and concluded with a letter read by Julia Ballenger that took the piece from abstract to concrete in its message.
The three pieces before intermission combined into one cohesive whole, and the musical soundtrack featuring Andrew Bird, Yann Tiersen, Sufjan Stevens and Bjork was a brilliant accompaniment to these pieces. The music was remarkably well chosen and mixed, becoming a perfect soundtrack for the movement of the dancers.
The piece “Whether” took the audience into intermission on a tremendous high note. The piece began low key, with a couple of performers moving gracefully and slowly across the stage while the rest of the performance group rested in a cluster. The piece opened up into a high-energy interaction between all of the dancers, and while Julia Ballenger soloed in this piece, every dancer was given an important role to play in the overall work. The music and dance exploded at the end, and themes of the emotional range people experience throughout their daily lives and the needed balance between isolation and togetherness were
well expressed.
“A Very Private Moment” opened the program following intermission. This piece was a set of four solo works inspired by paintings by Vermeer, James Abbot McNeill, Picasso and El Greco, each one paired with a different piece of music. Soloists Caitlin Maulin, Libby Schmoeger, Ciera Shaver and Mara Truslow combined for a fifth piece, inspired by the Cassandra Christensen Barney painting “4 Spanish Sisters”. This may have been the most challenging piece for the audience, but its low key and intimate feel was an exquisite way to begin the second half of
the program.
“Electrolux” closed out the evening. The work was set to the music of “Led Zeppelin” and was arguably the most controversial and impressive of the evening. The work was choreographed by Laura Peterson, a New York City-based dance artist and choreographer, and utilized three dancers in a piece that explored the way that our culture views and treats women, as well as how women view and treat each other and themselves. “Whole Lotta Love” opened the musical program, and the unashamedly graphic sexual lyrics of the Zeppelin classic signaled to the audience that no punches were going to be pulled. Balance dancers Caitlin Maulin, Libby Schmoeger and Ciera Shaver slowly began to move from their original static positions, and as the 18-minute piece progressed, it became increasingly energetic. The three women had minimal interaction with each other. Each woman was an individual, alone in her own virtual world. Within these worlds movements expressed activities such as makeup application, time spent in front of a mirror perfecting an image, and walking in high heels.
Two more Zeppelin pieces led up to the finale, which answered the question of what the piles of industrial tubing ringing the dancers throughout the performance were finally going to be used for. As “The Battle of Evermore” rocked the audience’s ears, soloist Libby Schmoeger turned this inert pile of gray tubes into a symbol for that which holds someone back. The gray material became a simple burden, and then a huge bulk of hair, and eventually turned into something that completely enclosed her. As she struggled her way out of this encumbrance and approached the audience with the other two dancers, silence filled Boise Contemporary Theater. And then applause erupted, a thankful gesture by an audience impressed and stunned by what they had just witnessed.
BRIAN MARSHALL
Arbiter Journalist
