Written by Mariko Nagashima
 |
| Susan Haines in Duet Photo by Ed Miller |
While the contemporary dance company It Must Have Been Violet’s program claims similarity to the color violet’s existence “at the end of the spectrum of light, just at the edge of the invisible,” it seems that IMHBV is not so much invisible, as just extremely under the radar. Perhaps that’s because its three artistic directors live in Bellingham , Washington ; Durham , North Carolina ; and Jacksonville , Florida
Torres’ piece Juncture, an homage to the resilient and domino-playing culture of Cuba Cuba
In Saturn Return, a solo by Seattle choreographer Rachel Grant, the audience was carried on an intergalactic journey to sounds of NPR’s “Star Date” lectures, which morphed into a search for love to the bluesy vocals of Dinah Washington
The most well articulated piece of the evening in both concept and execution was Haines’ My People Are Better Than Your People. Both title and text, which was projected across the back wall, were excerpts from Barbara Kruger’s 1994 installation at Serpentine Gallery in London
In Duet, Haines danced with a video projection of herself moving in front of a mirror. In a highly intriguing effect, her shadow added a fourth outline to the mix, making what was in reality a solo, often become a quartet of the same figure. While many movements lined up with the film projection and all featured long stretching lines, it seemed almost stream of conscious. The physical ramblings of the mind looping back on itself in separate stretches of time.
In Finley’s Three Downfalls, Finley used caricatures to chart three scenarios of disappointment with wit and humor. “Avalanche” featured dancer Sheryl Scott as a glammed-up rocker chick jamming out to the soothing piano chords of Johann Sebastian Bach. Her every head bang and punch of the air was perfectly timed to the tinkling piano but curiously disconnected as well. In “Funny: Night After Night,” dancer Ashley Spear played a clown trying desperately to get a rise from the audience with a repeated silent shtick of shuffles, showmanship, and goofy jumps. Her concern at the lack of response continued to increase, only amp-ing up the comedy factor, before she fell to the floor in defeat. Matney Murad perfectly displayed the monotony of office work in “Canned.” With one foot stuck in a waste-paper bin, she dragged herself onstage and through each movement with a fitting ennui. The three scenarios were clever, perhaps overly literal, but certainly entertaining.
The final piece of the evening almost too far away to remember featured dancers from the Dance Gallery, a collective based in Bellingham
As a whole, It Must Have Been Violet’s show displayed a range of techniques and clever uses of film and technology. Though there was not a huge amount of overlap between the directors’ diverse locales, (except with Juncture by the Florida based choreographer and featuring Washington
