The small crowd at the Grace Street Theater on Oct. 8 saw enormously fun, innovative and beautiful tales during opening night of “Possessions” by the Starr Foster Dance Project.
“Possessions” included three very different parts: “Hiding Exhalation”, “Release” and “Baggage (and the Seven Deadly Sins).” All of these had a style I can only describe as ballet meets abstract modern dance. Each show was dark, emotional and involved heavy amounts of partner work, both on the ground and in the air. This partner work was interestingly gender neutral; women lifted men and men lifted women.
The first segment was “Hiding Exhalation,” a duet that provoked a lot of emotion. The dancers were able to convey the confused, back and forth feelings of a rocky relationship so well the audience seemed to be able to feel their pain.
The dancers were touching for most of “Hiding Exhalation.” When they weren’t, they were almost perfectly synchronized except for the few imperfections that seemed to be purposeful. The dancer’s costumes were simple, yet because of their flowing and loose fit they were also dramatic.
The premiere of “Release” followed, bringing a very different flavor to the performance. The movement was choppier than the graceful “Hiding Exhalation” and the dancers seemed dreamlike, moving around the stage in loose fitting light pink shirts and pants.
This part was hauntingly beautiful; the dancers moved about the stage seemingly lost as they tried to find their way amidst changing circumstances before they finally synchronized and found one another. This part of the performance was complicated and unquestionably up to the viewer’s interpretation, an effect Starr Foster, artistic director and choreographer of SFDP said she intended.
“Baggage” began after a 15 minute intermission. It was previously done at Gallery5 in the round, meaning the seating was similar to an arena, which gave the audience a view from all angles. To provide the same effect at the Grace Street Theater many audience members sat at the perimeter of the stage.
For those of us in regular seating there was a screen on the back wall of the stage projecting the opposite view. This added an interesting effect that I thought would be distracting, but it added a whole new perspective.
A long, uncomfortable silence began “Baggage.” Then the dancers, dressed as audience members, began performing. Each dancer represented one of the seven deadly sins and had a suitcase in which they carried those sins. They tried to hide their sins and make sure no one saw them or stole them until the end when each sin was released, literally.
The dancers opened their suitcases and a mixture of ping pong balls, magazine cut-outs, condoms and other unidentifiable objects spewed onto stage. This signified an abrupt end to the performance.
It was very entertaining to see how each of the seven dancers’ movements differed from the other and how they moved as partners. Each performance was very different and dramatic, and left the audience feeling more as though they spent an evening watching theater instead of dance.