Skip to main contentDreams, daily routines and Silly Putty all came alive on the Polaris Dance stage last night.
Part of the Fertile Ground festival, Groovin' Greenhouse is a showcase produced by Polaris that puts a spotlight on emerging dancers across Portland, including five-piece collective Automal and members of Polaris' own company.
This showcase—there are several different Groovin' Greenhouse programs—opens with four new pieces by Polaris choreographers, including Emily Henderson's "Subconscious Living," which flows and freezes in a way meant to mimic Henderson's dreams. Gerard Regot's "Identity" is a robotic trip through daily routines, in which suit-and-tie-clad dancers march complacently in place, jump repetitively up and down, and flop on their sides like fish caught on a line. Later, Polaris artistic director Robert Guitron shows off a work in progress, a pained piece called "What's Wrong?" that involves duets with folding chairs meant to be a metaphor for what he sees is wrong with the world.
But M'Liss Quinnly's "Pierce" is the standout here. "This piece is about being confident in the present moment," Quinnly says in the sound-bite introduction. She notes that she's been working on this piece since 2006, when she went to the world championships for synchronized swimming. It's hard to say what it looked like in the water nine years ago, but its translation on land is stunning.
As usual, Quinnly displays beautiful timing as she pairs movements to emotional upswings in music. Ellen Alien & Apparat's instrumental "Metric" breaks up ambient electronic beats with randomly scissoring strings and scattered drum rolls. Heads shake and snap to these beats, while knees twist suddenly to the side, as if pulled by the violin strings themselves. Sharp and tight hand movements nod to a hip-hop influence, a vibe that continues with quick, isolated rolls and sudden, controlled stops and starts to a forever warbling bass line. In the intro, Quinnly mentions how hard she was on the dancers, demanding tightness and cleanliness. That attention to detail has paid off, and the performers are grounded and assured.
The second half of the evening sees experimental dance company Automal being, well, pretty experimental with a big blob of white Silly Putty. Called Graft, this work in progress is choreographed by company founder Kate Rafter and explores life cycles, love and how we all can mirror each other.
Most of the movement brings to mind childhood, as the dancers roll and knead the putty in their hands, wrap it around their necks or arms, or spin in circles while rolling the putty out in the air like a jump rope. Yet the tone is sweet and serious—in part due to the often soft and sentimental music, all acoustic Björk covers and remixes from her 2007 album, Volta. It's also thanks to the the slow, thoughtful movements, full of tight footwork and circular kicks that stay close to the dancer's center. Each of the performers chooses their steps with care, from the lively, almost jig-like jumps to the symmetrical line they form during the final song, a poignant story of finding yourself in your love for someone else. As dancers roll down the line in a wave or curl their arms around each other like a rope, almost in time to a breath, they reach a near-yogic level of calm.
SEE IT: Polaris Contemporary Dance Center, 1501 SW Taylor St., 380-5472. 7:30 pm Saturday, Jan. 31. $15 in advance, $18 at the door. Tickets here.
WWeek 2015