This weekend I had the joy of attending Cat + Fish Dances’ Flow, a part of their ninth year of consistent performances. As soon as I reached my seat in the penthouse performance space at the Leonardo, it began to rain. Heavily. Directly onto the Marley floor that had been carefully laid out in the courtyard. The artists quickly closed off the doors and rotated the audience seating to face an indoor corner of the room. The show that followed was a testament to the unpredictability of live performance and the artists’ commitment to the show going on. Despite this change in facing and flooring, the performers showed professionalism and seemed completely at ease throughout.
The first and last pieces of the show were choreographed by Cat Kamarath Monson in collaboration with the dancers, and were exactly what you could expect of good contemporary dance. Fettle and Wonder/Wander were both dynamic, lively, and showed intelligent spatial design. They were dancing for dance’s sake and showed off the talent of the performers beautifully.
A run on sentence about… by Daniel Do was driving and rhythmically exciting. All black costumes added to the mystery. Even though Daniel doesn’t tell us what the “run on sentence” was about, I got the sense that it had something to do with pleasure and distraction. The dancers moved intricately, limbs close to their bodies, constantly interrupting themselves. A recurring motif from Morgan Phillips performing a little internal dance, eyes closed and swirling her hips with her hand on her belly, left incomplete impressions of desire and satiation. This was only an excerpt, I hope there is more to see of this work at another time.
Megan O'Brien and Caleb Daly, in Friday's drier performance, photo by Michael O'Brien.
It's not mine, it’s not yours, it’s ours by Mar Undag started with a playful call and response between two dancers, then adding in a third and fourth. The piece then somewhat suddenly shifted towards more isolated and individual movements, where the dancers passed by without seeing each other. Or, in some cases, they saw each other and chose to turn away. The movement became more bound, leaving a sense of yearning. Initially I felt yearning directed toward something external, however, the piece evolved and arrived at a solo by Masio Sangster. He touched his face with the same textures we’d seen other dancers using to reach into space. For me, this changed the story significantly, and I realized this yearning was not about gaining something external, but changing something internally. A duet emerged between Masio and Bayley Banks. At times unstable, they held a sense of yearning while supporting each other and finding beautiful, lofty moments in the transitions. Emma Sargent’s simple humming created a soft space around the duet, which was finally embraced by the last two dancers, leaving impressions of care and love. As Mar himself said in the program notes, “10 out of 10, no notes, these artists are incredible.”
In the program notes, three out of four pieces say they were created “in collaboration with dancers.” (The fourth, Fettle, was credited to all four of its “creators and movers” — Cat Kamarath Monson, Caleb Daly, Daniel Do, Megan O'Brien.) This aligned with Cat’s opening statements on respecting the dancers she worked with and recognizing the value of their time. Where in the past many choreographers would take credit for the final product even if the dancers contributed material, I love seeing credit given where it is due. The practice acknowledges how much dancers contribute to the artistry of a work and dissolves traditional hierarchies within the creative process. Flow was a strong program that also revealed Cat’s integrity as a longtime Salt Lake artist.
Kara Komarnitsky grew up in Salt Lake City and recently graduated with a BFA in Dance from Ohio State University with minors in Environmental Science and Business. Her work approaches the complexity of human interconnection with the planet, pulling inspiration from the natural world and environmental research. While her primary medium is dance, Kara regularly uses projections, film, sound, and interactive technology to create immersive performance experiences. Her piece Tales of the Deep (2018) recently won third place in the Midwest Climate Summit’s Climate Stories Competition and her thesis, Interconnect (2022), received an Honorable Mention at the OSU Denman Research Forum 2022. Other places her work has been presented includes the OSU Student Concert, OSU BFA Showcase, and the Ohio Dance Festival Professional Concert.