KYLE MARSHALL CHOREOGRAPHY

Review by Celia Ipiotis

A cord of spirituality pulls through the evening of dances by Kyle Marshall. Encrusted in African American rhythms tipped in R & B a trio of dances fill the evening at the Joyce Theater beginning with Ruin (2023). Originally performed in relation to an exhibition  Henri Matisse in the 1930’s at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, arms rise to the sky, while dancers breathe deep into cushiony knees moving over feet swishing side to side.

After the dancers quietly enter, they step around pools of brightly colored ropes of material scattered on the floor. In this multiple media piece, dancers employ “dynamic listening devices” by Cal Fish that convert sounds from the ground and air into an amplified soundscape.  Without knowing this piece of audio information, the results resemble Hambone or Pattin Juba— an African American technique that  uses the whole body as a “drum set.”

The statuesque Bree Breeden claims the solo Alice, to the music of Alice Coltrane — a pianist and harpist as well as a proponent of spiritual jazz — married to the famed jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. “Dedicated to those who are on the verge of transformation,” Breeden feels the space around her, inhaling the sensations that gurgle into a flight of motion, deep contractions and leg swings back to a calmness, stilling the air. 

Driven by a sensational soundtrack that splices together clips from some of the foundational Black R&B and rock ‘n roll artists like Little Richard, James Brown, Big Mama Thornton, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe among others, the company poses and saucily romps across the stage primarily dancing against the imminently danceable music producing a palpable tension. Instead of gyrating in response to  Brown’s wails, they hit a jagged pose, front knee bent, back leg straight so it looks like a puzzle piece scrambled in motion.

Altogether, the engaged company convincingly infiltrates the material in a strong collaboration with Kyle Marshall’s vision.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Celia Ipiotis