Photos and words copyright Kyi M. Kaung.Dance and costume Gretchen Dunn.
I met Gretchen Dunn, dancer/choreographer at a FieldWorks Multidisciplinary workshop run by Laura Schandelmier and Stephen Clapp, at Liz Lerman Dance Studio in Takoma Park last fall. The first version of her dance placeDISplace that I saw, there was a woman, walking in a parched landscape, I thought, contemplating her bundle of sticks one by one.
I was happy to invite Gretchen to Space 7-10 where I run a Salon. Amy Kincaid helped me find a suitable date, made posters and helped out with the other logistics.
The version Gretchen danced last night, which she says is probably her final version, is more concentrated.
Laura, a superb and highly capable dancer herself, calls it “finely etched.”
To the mesmerizing drone of the music, composed by contemporary Hungarian composer Balázs Temesvári (pronounced Bar-large Ta-mesh-var-rie), Gretchen again “worked with the sticks.”
At different points in the dance, she seemed to be running her hand around a pot or bowl of water, preparing food, greeting/recognizing members of the audience, lying down exhausted, being startled by a sudden sound off stage. Post traumatic stress, suffered by a refugee or displaced person?
The title “placeDisplace,” for me at least, seems a bit too clever and cute for such a serious piece. But of course, it is the artist’s choice, the naming.
The sticks themselves, which Gretchen said she collected over a period of time, are beautiful abstract pieces, seemingly possessed of great symbolic or religious value.
After the performance, the audience engaged Gretchen in a lively question and answer session.
Is there a narrative story line? In the studio performance in Takoma Park, as Gretchen walked more with her burden of sticks, (there was more space to walk,) it looked like there was more “linear or narrative story.”
At Space 7-10, which is so small, only 7 x10’ and already filled by about 20 members of the audience on chairs or sitting on the floor, Gretchen’s dance piece is both more intimate and more intense.
Gretchen was able to hold us in rapt attention throughout. It is truly a thought-provoking piece.
Thank you, Gretchen Dunn, for honoring our small space with your lovely performance.
