The Next Wave creates space for young choreographers to stretch their creative muscles in a professional setting. Spaces for this kind of training and experience are so often lacking in the underfunded world of dance. Yet, the only way to build good dance is by giving dancers spaces to practice the craft. I am excited by Black Grace’s commitment to building Company B and am pleasantly surprised they have the funding to create a showcase for such green work. 

The showcase was set up to highlight the choreographers as much as the choreography. The choreographers spoke about their work and process as an interlude between each piece. The showcase started and ended with two different repertoire works from Black Grace, Prometheus and another I was unfamiliar with, bookending the show with seasoned movement that showcased the dancers’ talents. 

Unspoken by Fuaao Faith Tutulu Schuster

The work was solo-like, as Schuster explores personal unresolved anger directed at a formative experience of being separated from family. Her anger is accompanied by a chorus of female-presenting dancers. Sometimes observing her, supporting her, and moving in sync with her. My initial response was to wonder if the chorus pulls focus from this deeply personal narrative. Their role in the space is considered and their role clarified as the narrative progresses. In one moment, they stand around Schuster like four still pillars as she rages and battles through the movement. They hold space for her anger, listening, respecting, and giving permission for it.

Reticent by Rodney Tyrell

Reticent was a satisfying cacophony of masculine energy channeling through its all-male-presenting cast. Clean and clear gestures occur in unison to a driving beat.  Well mapped spatial formations shift and flow in surprising and intriguing patterns. Tyrell conceptually explores the difficulty of expressing oneself, specifically himself. In the masculine space of the piece, I understand this in the broader sense as well as the personal; men are not expected to share emotion. The movement was energetic and exhilarating, unfolding like clockwork. 

Afa ese’ese by Vincent Farane

Afa ese’ese explores the feelings of darkness we all share, and how Farane finds light within his culture and people. It exists in two halves, the first is a contemporary investigation into the conflict of our inner monsters and the second further incorporates Farane’s Samoan heritage as a place of personal grounding. I wonder how movements and ideas might have better bounced between the two halves to create more continuity? The work was a thoughtful look into the ways in which our people can bring us back to ourselves. 

Joy by Demi-Jo Sefo

This work was a dance about dancing, and I think that is sometimes just as important as deeply conceptual works. The dancers fly across the stage in traveling patterns, traversing space like planets moving a thousand miles a second. Sometimes orbiting together and others spinning off into the abyss. The pathways are exciting to watch and create a pleasing energetic flow that fills the stage. The dancer’s virtuosity and technical skill are on full display as they move through the tricky transitions and dynamic movements with ease. 

Hullaballoo by Oli Mathiesen

Mathiesen’s cheeky and humorous outlook is on full display in this wacky work. He is conceptually bringing together his fascination with the stability of a 9-5 office job with the “primal” occupation of dance. Hullaballoofeels as if Mathiesen is freeing humans from the bounds of our social culture and releasing us back into the wild. The movement is animalistic, ritualistic, and just a bit silly. I almost wish he pushed the movement vocabulary to even grosser and grittier places, beyond the tight clean gestures so often utilized in contemporary performance. 

I am looking forward to wonderful things from these burgeoning choreographers as they deepen their thought, fine tune their process, and develop unique perspectives. 

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