She

Center Dance Ensemble
Choreographer: Diane McNeal Hunt

“SHE” looked upon the wolves, who were dwindling in number, and back at the humans, who no longer cared for their own…..SHE combined their spirits. Fate whispered to her, “You cannot withstand the storm” and SHE whispered back, “We are the storm.” 

The problem with including such a powerful, enigmatic quotation in the dance description is that people are likely to take it literally. In an art form that often defies conventional meaning and has to constantly dodge the question, “What was that about?”, a statement like this is reassurance that, at least at some level, we’re going to “get it”. While this may be a bit mythical, it has an actual heroine (She is identified in the program) and even if the movement is interpretive and abstract, there is a story line for us to hang onto.

The opening meets those expectations, as She strides purposefully across the stage and the ensemble, who we presume to be the wolves, respond obediently to some innate authority She possesses. From the perspective of the audience, we are on script and settle in to watch as the story plays out, which it does in an identifiable and rather satisfying way as She begins to mold the pack, moving them progressively from their unruly and random behavior into a cohesive group. At various points, She calls to the pack and the snap of their immediate response is electric. This becomes the signature movement of the piece and is repeated to great effect. At the point where the pack is running in unison across the stage, we have a visceral understanding that She has molded them into a disciplined and formidable force, which is also a fitting climax to the first movement.

The second movement, presumably about engaging the humans, takes an unexpected turn. The score is brighter, the dancers’ movements more playful. It’s entertaining, but we lose all connection with what went on before. We are prepared for, and need, contrast with the first movement, but this feels like something else altogether. We were given an intriguing script, and this isn’t that. The ending, which has the dancers repeat a series of wonderfully disjointed movements across the stage (seemingly improvised animal behavior), isn’t enough to bring the two movements together, even though She elicits one last, terrific, call and response from the pack. It’s unfair, and counterproductive, to hold an artist to a literal interpretation of a subject. On the other hand, this piece was derived from, and the audience given, a literary premise. This inevitably created certain expectations which were not entirely met. If this work is ever mounted again, I would hope that it could be more fully realized and we are able to see the clarity of vision that was so evident in the first movement applied to the second as well.

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