Art Intercepts

Culture criticism from fly over country

Preview: Midwest Nexus Kicks Off with Synapse’s ‘Swath’

By Lauren Warnecke #Apprentice Producer Program, #dance shows, #Gretchen Soechting, #Jocelyn Hagen, #Julia Miller, #Katie Matteson, #Laura Tennal, #Leslie Werle, #Links Hall, #Matthew McMunn, #midwest, #Midwest Nexus, #MInneapolis, #outside the box, #Penelope Freeh, #performance previews, #Rachel Damon, #Russell Weiss, #Synapse Arts, #Vienna Willems

Synapse Arts by Matthew Gregory Hollis

I’ve known Rachel Damon for about 10 years, and I feel like I know her work pretty well.

A Damon dance is grounded, dark, and shrouded in abstraction. She blurs the lines between genders, genres, and disciplines in her work and creates through improvisation and visceral experiences.  Her costumes are grey, and red, and blue.

Swath is from another place entirely.  The world Damon creates for the dancers of her company (Synapse Arts) is all white and beige, like an antique photograph.  There are literal references to building, farming, and territorial lines; the dancers’ roles are strictly male and female. The five women in the piece (Leslie Werle, Gretchen Soechting, Laura Tennal, Katie Matteson and Vienna Willems) unplait their long hair while Matthew McMunn mimics the movements of a crazed country butcher.

There are few ambiguities in Swath, and, coming from Rachel Damon, that’s what makes it so intriguing. However, in watching a preview of the work I got the impression that a deep-seeded wrath lies beneath the surface of this seemingly perfect world.  It’s almost too perfect, and, true to form, Damon’s choreography (combined with Julia Miller’s hand drawn projections and Russell Weiss’s nostalgic sound score) has managed to coat the piece with a layer of mystery that I don’t quite understand.

In a good way.

Synapse’s Swath appears beside Slippery Fish (from Minneapolis-based Penelope Freeh and Jocelyn Hagen) for the debut of Links Hall’s Midwest Nexus Program.  Midwest Nexus is an extension of the Apprentice Producers Program, partnering local companies with an emerging Production Manager who supports touring opportunities in Midwestern cities.  Following this weekend’s showing at Links, Synapse and Freeh/Hagen take this performance to the Twin Cities for a performance in Freeh’s home town.

—

Synapse Arts’ Swath is part of The Midwest Nexus Program, premiering June 7-9, 7:00pm, at Links Hall / Constellation (3111 N. Western). Tickets are $15/12 available online or cash at the door. Photo of Vienna Willems and Laura Tennal by Matthew Gregory Hollis.