Dance and the Rodeo: Partners at the Party

Abstract

A man, submerged in deep blue light. Shoulders as if rippling through a heavy current. He upends, cool-like water pouring, street moves in slow motion. In the midst of a tangle of swiftly passing dancers, one leaps backwards and we just catch at the top of the leap her shaking, trembling joy. Something animal in the air. Luminescent tensile red threads connect dancers mouth to mouth across the space. They can’t possibly be counting this music, but two dancers drop to floor and in sudden synchrony shapeshft together. Men toss themselves through space; women slide over their shoulders like friendly fishes passing in a school. When one stops (Did they ever really pause? They must have because of the sense of calm and lightness, but they couldn’t have because of the sense of urgency and power), others wash over on an unseen current. One woman, serenely slow, dancing centre stage, while another circles in super fast-forward, the juxtaposition a magical means of giving us, simultaneously, boundless energy AND all the time in the world. Revelation /Elation.