Consistently curious, honestly open: a response by Sarah Stearn
Image captured by Ricardo Adame
The Invitation Situation
Performed on February 23-24, 2024 at Links Hall
Choreographer: Jeanine Durning
Performers + Collaborators: Heidi Brewer, Clare Croft, Andee Scott, and Mary Williford-Shade
Technical Crew: Ale Favila, David Camargo, + Giau Truong
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In Links Hall’s brightly lit and intimate space, Jeanine Durning and dancers Heidi Brewer, Clare Croft, Andee Scott, and Mary Williford-Shade move fluidly, softly, with curiosity brimming at each gesture, each pass, each choice, inviting us into The Invitation Situation. Starting from scratch, from movement, and evolving by inviting new elements into the score(s): wall and floor interactions, vocalization, and various household items such as a chair, a pole, a plant. The dancers’ exploration of their environment at hand created a soft, smooth, curious relationship to the space with their bodies. What a joy to witness creative exploration in real time - I wanted more and didn’t want it to end.
At first, I didn’t know what to expect. How would this situation unfold? Dancing and exploring softly in silence for the first moments while audience members trickled in, the five dancers established a curious, attuned, connected world for themselves. A metronome beat signaled a change - entrances and exits are invited into the situation. Some dancers leave, some stay, one stays, many leave, one leaves, many stay. One faces a wall. One explores the floor space. All linked with the metronome, they have an unspoken bond holding them together as the score builds.
My ears perk up when one dancer begins to vocalize and move. The voice is now invited into the situation, opening up another element for the dancers to explore in their time and space together. Openness begets openness: the more elements are invited into the space, the more the dancers are able to explore, the more open they can be with themselves, each other, and the audience.
Something about vocalization and movement brings an emotional (often comedic) element. Now, not only do we see the dancers move, but we can hear them, too. “I’m leaving,” says a dancer as they walk toward the door. “Stay,” exclaims another dancer, who’s standing with the rest of the group across the stage. The first dancer turns around… then turns back, “Nah I’m leaving.” I can’t help but chuckle. They repeat in this vein – vocalizing “do doing did, do doing did,” entering and exiting, emotion now unfolding into the mix.
Reverberations from the vocalizing and the audience’s reactions made the space feel more supportive as the dancers re-entered with movement, making the movement breathe easier. Consistency gives the performance space to breathe. Consistency in movement, connection, curiosity… sticking with it, with each other in the space allows for ease and breath within, allowing the unconscious to unfurl. Durning’s use and practice of this methodology, known as nonstopping, invited the audience into the whirlwind of the world that was emerging outward into the space from deep within the dancers.
Image captured by Ricardo Adame
Eventually, various props are brought into the space, including a plant, a pole, a chair… now the dancers explore setting and resetting these items while stating what they want. Something like, “I want green I want green grass I want grass I want to smoke all the grass I want you to be green I want green grass I want green,” as they hold a pillow on a chair and the other four dancers move around and with the set. Each dancer gets a turn exploring their desires through an associative stream of consciousness as the set and props are set and reset, almost revolving about the space from downstage, stage left, upstage left. This revolving and taking turns gives the feeling of a revolving door… time is passing, constantly moving forward, but the repetition almost reflects a feeling of stuckness – stuck in a loop perhaps. Stuck inside (literally, as I understand these dancers worked together while the world was in lockdown during the covid pandemic.) Stuck inside their spaces and their own heads. However, the practice of nonstopping together, communally, inherently opens their minds and allows the “stuckness” to “unstick.” With consistent practice together comes breath, relief, expression, and, ultimately, a release to move forward.
The sound speaker set on stage left was constant the whole time, but set and reset throughout the last section. It played the metronome, and later played some soft classical music… for some reason it added to the randomness of the situation, and somehow felt human and logical - a grounding element in their world. Not only was the practice consistent, having this grounding prop centered their world. Seemingly random, perhaps not random at all, the speaker’s purpose set the stage by centering all of the dancers as their internal worlds unfolded in the space together.
The last vignette was particularly striking to me. A dancer clad in black coveralls with short blonde hair explores the back wall of Links Hall. Top lights illuminated their body so that at different points within the movement, it looked like this dancer had wings. Perhaps the wings signified the dancer finding freedom from continuously entering and practicing in this ever-evolving and revolving situation.
Image captured by Ricardo Adame
Ultimately, this situation was grounded in humanity. Through the use and practice of nonstopping, Durning invited the dancers to externalize their internal worlds, find release and relief within stuckness, and laugh throughout the process. The whole spectrum of human emotion is inherently available through this practice, and what I witnessed on this night was curiosity, confusion, joy, and humor. Allowing the unconscious to unwind, being open and available to possibilities of expression from deep within, The Invitation Situation reminds us of the importance of our innate humanity and collective conscience.
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Sarah Stearn was born and raised in Chicago, IL. She supports the performing arts by attending dance classes and shows, producing and administrating for the J e l l o Performance Series, and writing responses to performances. Her movement practice includes dance, yoga, walking with her Grandma Sunny, and playing with her cat, Luna.
