In the first dance, “The Way it Was and Now (First Rendition)– performed at Danspace Project as part of the PLATFORM 2o12: Parallels series— we find Samantha Speis, performer and choreographer, wearing a colorful African skirt and a midriff top. She begins to make motions with her body on a stage that is covered with all kinds of clothing.  Suddenly, the lights turn off and Spies starts to cover herself in the pants, shirts, coats and other articles that surround her.  We can see that she is troubled; she is tired and in pain. She gets on the floor, grabs pieces of clothes and zooms across the room to make a huge pile.  All the while, the music guides her, telling her where she can throw herself.

The second dance, Here…, choreographed by Marjani A. Forte, revolves around four dancers. Each has a special attribute. One of the dancers is a military man, another a business woman, the other, a wife, and lastly there is a woman dressed as a dancer. They all have emotional faces. We can see worry, yet we also notice a desire to understand.  “Why are we alive?” the dancers seem to wonder.  Many people ask this question but there is no one true answer: maybe there never was one.

The performers in Here…, try to form answers with their dancing. They try to understand their existence. Towards the works’ conclusion, another character, a woman, enters and speaks to the others– not with words, but with hand gestures. Her preaching looks great and especially helps us understand the hopes and dreams of the characters we have met.

The third piece, Boyz N’ The Hood:Pavement, choreographed by Kyle Abraham, contains many different emotions.  It is a story of todays’ world; where people kill each other and find it difficult to keep together as friends and family. In one part of the dance we see a man running.  He slows down as one person after another starts to join his running circle. The dancers are so in sync with one another as they move.  We can see how hard they worked to create this dance.

Suddenly one of the characters gets shot and he lays on the floor.  Then, one person at a time, the others lie on top of each other; black and white, men and one woman.We can feel everyone coming together amidst all the pain and suffering.

All the performances were great, but my favorite was the third one. It was a bit longer than the rest, but it was the one which shared the most emotion and tension.