all photos by Christopher Duggan, courtesy of Jacob’s Pillow Dance

Just one week after our premiere at ODC Theater, we headed east to perform excerpts of Double Exposure at Jacob’s Pillow, America’s longest-running international dance festival. It was a long week. Exhausted (happily so) from the premiere, we found ourselves right back to the drawing board, chopping the piece in half, while still trying to keep its essence and heart. The weather echoed our experience. Driving through the beautiful Berkshires on the morning of our performance, the skies alternated between sweet summer drizzle and full on windshield blinding rain. There went our picturesque outdoor debut…

Fast forward a few hours: after teching the piece indoors, meeting the entire Pillow staff, and eating some remarkably tasty sweet potato fries from the canteen, the skies had opened. Not a lot, but enough to think we might squeak our 35 minute performance by the weather gods. And sure enough, Plan A happened (their staff had Plans B, C, and even D all mapped out).

As native East Coasters, we grew up under the spell of the Pillow. Its history, its incredible artists… all were part of the fabric of dance as we knew it. It did not disappoint. What a magical place to perform! Excited audiences, breathtaking (almost dangerously so) scenery, and one of the most cheery and super capable crews we’ve ever had the chance to work with. After the all-clear was given for the weather, the stage and seating were hand-toweled off in minutes. We were brought rocks to weigh down our costumes when they started floating in the wind. Our sound cues were nailed after one viewing. The audience never had to know what amazing work went on to get us onstage so swiftly.

Huge thanks to Pam and Ariana for bringing Double Exposure to the Pillow, and to Sarah, Penny and all the other amazing folks who helped make it all happen!

Big thanks to Megan Brian, guest writer for ODC Theater’s Writer-in-Residence, who served up a slew of beautiful questions inspired by each duet in Double Exposure!

“Double Exposure, the title of the piece, is a nod to this echoing. The repetition of an echo is complicated by the distortion of overlapping vibrations.The repetition of an echo is complicated by the distortion of overlapping vibrations. Instead of struggling to bring such an image or sound into focus, it is a chance to relish in the movement of ideas and images without necessarily distilling them into answers.” Read more

Four completely sold out shows and a few busted piñatas later, we could not have been more thrilled with the premiere of Double Exposure at ODC Theater. Check out what the critics are saying about this epic production that was two years in the making and four years in the imagining:

4/5 Stars from critic Claudia Bauer, via Dance Tabs: “The real reveal of Double Exposure is not an index of the West Coast choreographic point of view – if anything, this unscientific sample shows how nose-thumbingly motley our contemporary dance scene is – but  the intelligence and versatility of Smith and Rein as artists. Few dancers could conjure two-minute universes that range from hard-hitting (Johnston) to cerebral (Holt) to lyrics-driven (Seiwert) and make you believe each one; perhaps only these two would even try.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review by Heather Desaulniers, via Critical Dance (and Heather’s Dance Commentary blog): “Any discussion of RAWdance’s Double Exposure cannot conclude without mentioning Smith and Rein’s radiant performance. The pair moved through thirteen varied duets with such grace, confidence, rigor and strength – all in, all the time. Phenomenal dancers; gifted communicators; accomplished artists. Double Exposure is a definitive tour de force.” 

(On CriticalDance.org, scroll down to July 28 for the full review)

Review by Marie Tollon, ODC Writer in Residence: “Morphing from one duet to the next with feline versatility, they create an intricate moving installation that displays the breadth of styles and genres that can be found on the West Coast dance map. Aside from their technical strength and intelligence as curators and performers, what comes through in Double Exposure is their generosity: generosity in sharing the artistic complexity of 16 different choreographic voices, thereby introducing viewers to artists with whom they might not be familiar; generosity in breaking down the fourth wall and transforming the theater into a personable space where viewers can experience some of what dance can “do,” including entertain and question.”

 

We were so lucky that Andrew Weeks could shoot the premiere! Here are some of the highlights from opening weekend. Shoutout to our incredible costume designer, Kristen McCullough, who had the monumental task of tying together the disparate costume ideas of 16 choreographers.

All images courtesy Andrew Weeks Photography

While we’ve done much of the documenting on our own, we are blown away by the way visual artist Hillary Goidell has been able to capture it through photography. She has attended our rehearsals with as many artists as possible (see a previous post about her here), and filled in the rest. With the same two dancers in every photo, we never imagined just how singularly she could capture the essence of each duet in a still image. It’s truly uncanny.

Many of Hillary’s images are up on her website, but the full exhibit is up at Robin’s Cafe at ODC Theater until October 7. Check it out before it’s gone!