You could say that Dancers’ Studio West’s Metamorphosis is all about transformation. The performance, as part of DSW’s Dance Action Lab, is the culmination of choreographers going through a rigorous training and mentorship engagement. Metamorphosis is a collection of three pieces by three different choreographers.
Form, Act, Cease, Ensue is a piece choreographed by Catherine Hayward featuring performers Jeremy Gignoux, Nicole Charlton-Goodbrand, Shayne Johnson, Davida Monk, Linnea Swan, and Su Lin Tseng. The performance centers around shaping and moving to Jeremy Gignoux’s violin music. It’s a simple piece that has the dancers following and influencing the musician. They manipulate his music with their movement.
Sight(st)ing is a piece by Shayne Johnson that stars Nicole Charlton-Goodbrand, Catherine Hayward, Brandon Maturino, Su Lin Tseng and Linnea Swan. This production features some fierce movement that tells a bit of a broken story of a pack of dancers versus a single. The single dancer winds up not surviving and the others pick at her to see if she’s actually dead. It’s an interesting piece but could use a little bit of development.
The final piece entitled Ashes for Beauty by Davida Monk is the longest of all three pieces and has an arch. Dancers Nicole Charlton-Goodbrand, Catherine Hayward, Shayne Johnson, Brandon Maturino, Linnea Swan, and Su Lin Tseng undergo a transformation. They grow and develop and it’s all done in costuming by Angela Dale. The dancers seem to shed skin as they transform in their movement.
Metamorphosis was part of DSW’s Dance Action Lab. For more information about upcoming performances visit their website.
Photo Credit: Citrus Photography