In “FRAMEWORK,” Kristin Damrow & Co Explore The Body Inside And Out

By Garth Grimball

Kristin Damrow knows how to produce live art. Since “Eames” premiered in 2018 in San Francisco, Kristin Damrow & Company has been making dances that are design-forward, thoughtfully staged, and detail conscious. “FRAMEWORK,” presented at The Lab on June 3-4, builds on the company’s reputation of impressive execution while plateauing in movement invention.

“FRAMEWORK” is billed as an immersive experience of the skeletal structure and biomechanics. The Lab gallery had three 12-feet high white, monolithic structures cutting through the space at different angles. A striking paper sculpture, made by Damrow, hung from the ceiling like a diorama of vertebrae or layers of skin peeled back. On the back wall a projector showed images of biomass at a cellular level.

Damrow invited the audience to move through the space letting yourself miss some things and discover others. Throughout the show she led by example and the audience followed suit, creating our own swirling biomass. I walked, sat, squatted, leaned, stood still. I was more aware of my skeleton by moving through the space than if the show were a seated event. The audience accepted Damrow’s invitation to immerse.

Allegra Bautista, Brandon Graham, Sam Grayson, Anna Greenberg Gold, and Sawako Ogo entered in black pants and semi-translucent yellow anoraks cropped at the waist. In a line they leaned against one of the monoliths touching their heads to its surface. Delicate moments like this heightened the sense of architecture’s precarity; no matter the strength of the materials the assembling is key to integrity. The dancers disassembled and assembled in solos, group choreography, and stillness.

The choreography began with motifs on waves and distal ends. Erect arms acted like a compass for the body to rotate around. Deep lunges were the base for torsos to ripple and sway like bamboo scaffolding. One movement phrase evoked the jelly bones of Trisha Brown—side step into a curtsy lunge as the arms slice across the upper body, using the momentum to change directions.

The motifs recurred throughout the dance but the dominant movement vocabulary became contemporary modern: sickled-foot developpes, pirouettes, body undulations to the floor. All danced beautifully by a technically skilled cast, but the connection to the concept spread thin as “FRAMEWORK” progressed. At the work’s beginning I was truly considering the skeleton. By the end the body’s architecture was backgrounded by dance moves that lacked the specificity imbued in the performance space.

Composer Aaron Gold’s score is replete with hooks and beat drops. Part of the evening’s choreography was the swaying and head bobbing of audience members. As the dancers reached their energetic apex though the music had a flattening effect. There was little sonic space left to ratchet up the energy.

“FRAMEWORK” succeeded in its mission to create an immersive dance experience. Walking through The Lab’s gallery was an orgy of sound, visual art, and bodies in motion. The work’s skeleton could use a few more bones.

 

Garth Grimball is a dance writer and artist based in Oakland, CA. He is a contributor to SF Examiner and Dance Media. He is the editor of ODC’s Dance Stories.

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