Courtesy of LC Theatre Department
Deeply symbolic, sharp and sporadic, the Tiffany Mills Dance Company performed on the Fir Acres mainstage on the April 4 and 5 evenings, with ten Lewis & Clark students in the ensemble. LC hosted the inaugural West Coast performance of the New York-based company’s current project, “Viola Trilogy.” Choreographed and organized by the company’s artistic director and LC’s Director of Dance, Tiffany Mills, the project is a harmonious representation of her bicoastal reverence for choreography.
The combination of professional and student dancers wove a fascinating conversation, posing questions about selfhood, reliance on others, sight, blindness and fate. While a written piece may only do justice to a small sliver of the performance, the immaculate lighting design, specifically tailored music, the discernable care and dedication expressed by every single dancer made for an intriguing, complex demonstration.
The first of three pieces featured four dancers who were explicitly aware of the audience’s presence around them, breaking the fourth wall by beckoning and inviting us to them. They seamlessly shifted between taut, animatronic movements to twisted, melding weight-sharing. The complex dissonance of the seven violas who created original compositions added another layer of eccentricity to the already intoxicating piece. Themes of pushing the self and the physical body and relying on others’ bodies for support and energy were present, and there was an almost animalistic take-over of the forms on the stage.
The second piece celebrated our very own LC students, ten dancers from the program hand-picked by Mills to participate in this project. Ever-shifting points of focus directed the viewers’ eyes to notice tiny moments of symmetry and intimacy. Surprising moments of togetherness were made ever more striking by the sporadic, eerie forms that the dancers’ bodies contorted themselves into. Dancers, held up into the outstretched arms of their partners, moved dynamically through the air and across the floor. The piece emphasized, or perhaps created, a strong sense of community by permeating the sense that the dancers on stage were truly familiars. The comfortable weight sharing, eye contact, gentle holding and guiding transitions created profound catalysts of movement with emotional depth.
The third piece I am still trying to comprehend as I write. The thematic existence of many characters brought onto the stage by only four dancers from the Tiffany Mills company was enticing and confusing. It left me with the strong sense that I would be parsing out the meaning long after exiting the theater. This final piece surpassed the guidelines of a dance performance, creeping into the realm of theater, philosophy and existentialism.
The pedestrian character of a man in a suit commanded the stage, speaking directly to the audience, fully and unabashedly acknowledging our existence. “This is a mirror,” he told us as we were invited on a journey. A count to ten ushered us from being mere viewers, as we were throughout the previous two, to becoming active participants within the performance. This time, our voyeurism placed us in conversation with this series of singular and fantastical revelations.
The importance of sight, bodily awareness and losing and regaining one’s self were persistent questions begged throughout the piece. Moments of humor, whether intentional or not, reminded us once more that we, as an audience, were actively participating in the creation before us. For moments, we were directly told we were invisible, privy like flies on the wall to the development of the storyline. Along with the enduring theme and actualized character of the fly, we encounter a dog, a ghost and spiritual teachers, their characters playing differing roles throughout the narrative.
The strength effortlessly apparent in the dancers allowed them a freedom within their movements, a palpable trust in their bodies to shift and sway, become instantly tight and rigid, and just as suddenly, soft and pliable.
“Viola Trilogy” was unlike any dance show I have seen. Much like the instrument of the viola, often used to support the melodic violin, there was an interest in reworking the narrative, centering the often supporting instrument. I do not believe these pieces were meant to be enjoyed superficially; instead, they require an inquisitive mind to parse out the complex narratives presented.
Perplexing, philosophical and astounding, this impressive expression of art brought a fascinating energy to LC and an evening of wonder to our community
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