I love Sam and Alex’s recent review of SONDERimmersive’s Through Yonder Window, and since digital conversations is kind of what we have right now, and we all exist in some strange no-time time, I’m turning this review into a conversation with theirs.
Liz: Three friends and I signed up for SB Dance’s CURBSIDE THEATER. We all had different relationships to the company, T has mutual friends with Stephen, B had already seen the show and was experiencing it for the second time, and I went in with the thought of doing my first loveDANCEmore review in a couple years and also knowing Ari Hassett from dancing together at the U. Seeing performance and dancing has always been a very social thing for me, and it was great to be doing this together.
Performer Annie Kent (photo: SB Dance)
Sam: It was refreshing to get out of the house and see some work — odd to say refreshing about an hour spent in a windowless concrete garage. I found the process of guiding the car into place nerve-wracking, for some reason I was afraid I would run over a performer.
Liz: Yes, to the word “refreshing”. The ease of arranging this “dance appetizer” from SB Dance is part of the appeal. When I arrived at T’s house too many cars were parked at the curbside and I didn’t know how we’d make space. Panic! Stephen reassured me via text that he’d solve it when he got there. He pulled into T’s driveway with his small camping trailer with two yellow chairs bolted to it. The team jumped out, set up some lights and a mic, and off to the races. My life right now is way too much domestic and professional engineering, it was great to have someone else solve something.
Alex: I thought the performers interacting with the cars was fun. They made a lot of eye contact through the windows, rolled around on the hood, wrote “Just Married” on our back windshield, and then washed the car (or at least the parts they touched) at the end.
Liz: A hot night, Stephen said we’d be doing a tango-inspired steamy series. Musicians Raffi and Ischa began a sultry rendition of Corcovado as Ari Hassett in a black jumpsuit took the chair. Her languid dance was focused inward, with a close peripheral eye on the near edge of the stage. I loved the first time she leaned off her center, holding onto the chair for support and slowly uncurling her leg at a 45 degree angle to the tall tree behind her. It was great to see her performing after some time off for an injury. She’s back and with a seasoned feeling to her performance. After Ari finished, Stephen deftly sanitized the entire trailer and chairs while sharing the impetus for this project; “Around May, I was sitting on my hands at home…”
Alex: [Some of the cast of Through Yonder Window] were wearing Hawaiian shirts that remind me of the one Leonardo DiCaprio wears in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and I couldn’t stop wondering if that was done on purpose. Leo in that unbuttoned shirt with his chest sweaty and bandaged is what you remember about his character, you know?
Sam: Oddly, what I remember about the movie is the fish tank in the scene where the lover’s meet at a party. I recall very little else...
Liz: It’s so funny that Baz came up in y’all’s review, because after Ari’s dance, Stephen and Annie Kent gave us what he described as a Strictly Ballroom duet, complete with popped collar. I guess right now, we’re all making art in Baz Luhrmann’s brain? When their duet turned from sensual to playful, with spider arms weaving around each other and in and through the yellow chairs, I was all in. There’s still a part of me that is hungry not just for live art but for movement invention and being surprised by dance. I thought there were interesting moments in this second duet that I hope SB continues to build on as they keep performing.
Sam: I don’t think the pandemic is ending anytime soon. This obviously isn’t the news we want but it’s the truth. Limitations can lead artists to new forms of creativity. I’ll be interested to see how people continue to solve this problem and keep making dances.
Liz: Attention to the whole audience experience is part of what makes SB fans such a die-hard group. In this challenging time of problem solving, SB brings that signature consideration. Pre-pandemic this looked like open bars, performers moving amongst the crowd, and some wild shenanigans. In a more staid way, SB retains that ethos by coming to us, keeping it simple, hopeful, and essential.
Liz Ivkovich is a former loveDANCEmore editor and brilliant performer and choreographer. She currently works for UtahPresents in development and produces choreography and scholarship in Salt Lake City.