One Good Quote: Davalos Dance Company in Borders, Spaces and Brown Eyes

October 8, 2019

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Photo: David Gaylord

In Fall 2017, Life as a Modern Dancer launched a new concept for post-performance discussion and writing. The goals are multi-fold:

What are new ways to invite post-performance writing (since so few publications now print dance reviews, and there are fewer and fewer dance critics in the United States)?
How can choreographers hear and read more from audience members about their impressions and experiences of dance events?
Can we offer new mechanisms for choreographers to gather language about their work, to further their work and to promote their work?

The premise is simple. If you experienced Davalos Dance Company's production of Borders, Spaces and Brown Eyes at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center (October 5 and 6, 2019), please take a few minutes to leave a comment. Write down images, impressions, appreciations, and questions from the performance. These can be words, phrases, or a few sentences.

We thank you for your time, support, and thoughtfulness. Here's to more dialogue, more reflection, and more writing on the dance performance experience. As choreographer Mariah Steele noted, we are "democratizing dance criticism."

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6 responses to “One Good Quote: Davalos Dance Company in Borders, Spaces and Brown Eyes”

Jill Randall

Oct 8, 2019 at 9:00 pm

Thank you Cathy and dancers for a beautiful performance Saturday night.
Dance as community gathering
Dance as celebration
Dance as storytelling
Dance as visibility
Dance as power
I loved the arc of the evening and how each piece pulled me in a bit more. I think the section with Catalina and Rogelio dancing on the boxes, performing ballet folklorico footwork, was the apex for me. That moment represented so much to me – a moment of exhaustion, endurance, power, and elegance all in one.
The last section was quite magical as well in the long white skirts, male and female dancers alike. A true swirl of tradition and contemporary aesthetics.
Thank you.

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KJ Dahlaw

Oct 8, 2019 at 9:17 pm

Such uplifting work! I saw pride. And joy. And celebration in the face of injustice. Brought me to tears more than once. So grateful for this work. Thank you.

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Dana Lawton

Oct 9, 2019 at 7:57 am

Deeply embodied dancing!

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Margot

Oct 9, 2019 at 9:11 am

Congratulations on a wonderful, joyful and gorgeous show. It felt like such a great reflection of who you are: colorful, warm, engaging and accessible.
The thing that struck me most about the piece was how the dancers related to each other – that they made eye contact, responded with smiles and connection, that the audience was similarly engaged with, so we felt the emotional exchange throughout the piece. In so much of the dance I see, there’s an almost robotic element to the performance, like there aren’t people moving, that the movement is more important than the humanity behind it. I felt the opposite with your show, which was wonderful.

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Maria

Oct 10, 2019 at 12:04 pm

The play of light and shadow seemed to create another set of dancers whirling in time with the performers, the liminal becomes tangible as the mundane becomes otherworldly.

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Ashwin Srinivasan

Oct 10, 2019 at 9:59 pm

I thought the performance was moving, beautiful, and full of positive vibes. It had a kind of genius that few people are capable of creating on stage, and the music was perfectly curated and the dance was perfectly choreographed. No one who saw this production could have walked away feeling that dance as an art is removed from the ‘every-man’: there was so humanity, beauty, and love embodied in the way the artists performed and carried themselves on stage, reflecting the dignity that we as human beings believe we all have, but that we seldom are able to capture in our every-day lives as beautifully as this show managed to showcase.

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