One Good Quote: pateldanceworks in “wild light”

December 4, 2025

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Back in Fall 2017, Life as a Modern Dancer launched One Good Quote for post-performance discussion and writing. The goals were 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, and 8 years later, still offers a valuable platform for artists and audience members alike. If you experienced the live performance of wild light with pateldanceworks, December 4-7 2025 at ODC Theater in San Francisco, 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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Related writing:
Artist Profile #175: Bhumi B Patel
Stepping into the “wild light” with the collaborators of pateldanceworks

3 responses to “One Good Quote: pateldanceworks in “wild light””

Jill Randall

Dec 6, 2025 at 1:54 pm

I was happy to be there Thursday night.

Bhumi’s opening solo: birthing, grounding, seeing, shedding. Questioning.

This served as a prelude for me, for the second half of the evening and the quartet.

Then the four dancers emerged from house left like a fog bank in the Bay Area…traveling quickly, smoothly, continuously. I loved that entrance.

The dreamlike quality of the quartet swept me away. Beautiful moments of easeful connection, interspersed with a sense of play and giddy joy. Expansive and expanding softness.

Rachel Austin’s live music (and recordings too) were one of the highlights of the project. What a gift to experience live music, and what a great range of sounds and feelings.

Thank you for a beautiful experience!

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Yanin Kramsky

Dec 17, 2025 at 3:34 pm

What I appreciated about Wild Light is how it offers glimpses of a queer future where bodies and the material world intertwine in ambivalent, boundless ways, teeming with possibility. I was drawn into a world that is both delightful and tense, shimmering with the potential of what could be. The performers find their way by shedding what no longer works and redefining joy amidst emotional complexity, balancing playful exploration with serious introspection. This is dreamt and felt against the backdrop of intimate sound. Wild Light prompted me to ask myself: How can wildness be redefined, untethered from a fear of the unknown? What must we shed, and what can we cherish to ensure collective thriving? How can we find solace in complex interpersonal relationships? What are our unique entanglements with Nature and each other? For me, these questions were powerfully evoked through the dancers’ movements, the interplay of light on fabric, and the amorphous form that opened the show. Wild Light is an urgent invitation to imagine a future that is both lively and ensures living for all—precisely what is needed in this moment. I’m grateful to have witnessed such a beautiful performance, thank you.

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Tatianna Steiner

Dec 18, 2025 at 5:48 pm

The phrasing of the ensemble brought a diverse perspective to the work!
I also thoroughly enjoyed the soundscape. Instead of just watching the performance, I truly felt like I experienced it and felt it through my body.

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