A lithe dancer, strong local imagery, a powerful narrator and an immersive stage briefly come together in a compact space for a memorable experience.
Annas-Lee Design and Graham Cole continue ‘Origami Night: a new choreopoem’ live and in person at the Plaza Blackbox Theatre at Boston Center for the Arts in Boston, Massachusetts through Sunday, August 4. This swiftly paced production is approximately 50 minutes with no intermission and presented as an up close and personal theatre in the round. Click here for more information and for tickets.
Meditative, enchanting, and complex, Origami Night: a choreopoem is an intense experience unlike anything I have seen before. It delves into powerful themes such as grief, war, passion, trauma, and sheer joy in a unique manner that is constantly evolving as the production journeys through a woman’s life. At first, dancer Elenaluisa Alvarez performs an interpretive dance to Annas-Lee’s dynamic sound design and Boston-based author and poet Pamela Annas’s contemplative work narrated rhythmically by Luz Nicolás, but Alvarez has a mind of her own as does her surroundings. It is an unpredictable piece as Christopher Annas-Lee’s thunderous, alarming, tumultuous, dreamlike, soothing, and flashing multicolor lighting becomes its own character. The lighting leads the dancer which is at times funny and unique, but that will change as well. Red circle lighting where the narrator mentions red heels is a nice touch as well as the notable vibrations depicted by Annas-Lee.
Fueled by Graham Cole’s emotive, symbolic and at times humorous and passionate choreography, Alvarez is coy, scowls, flaunts and it is easy to imagine her skipping along a windswept aqua coast as it is to visualize her charming playfulness during a dance contest to big band rhythms. Virginia Belt’s loose and symbolic clothing helps to maintain a dreamlike atmosphere as Alvarez spins elegantly and then at once contorts in tight movements from stress and exhaustion.
Origami Night is a lot to take in and although printing the verses in the background might have been helpful, it might have also been distracting with the activity coinciding onstage. The narrator is compelling with a balanced presentation where one does not get lost in the dance over the narration. However, the captivating lighting may ensnare you in places that lead to its intriguing conclusion.
Annas-Lee Design and Graham Cole continue ‘Origami Night: a new choreopoem’ live and in person at the Plaza Blackbox Theatre at Boston Center for the Arts in Boston, Massachusetts through Sunday, August 4. This swiftly paced production is approximately 50 minutes with no intermission and presented as an up close and personal theatre in the round. Click here for more information and for tickets.