Contemporary dance is appealing in part for its subjectivity. Every work is a dialogue between dancers and audience to discover its meaning , and watching dance that heavily abstracts situations, environments and relationships feels like entering a verdant garden full of lush fruit on which the imagination can feed.

Growth and ingenuity are major themes of this year’s “3320” dance festival at Dovetail Studios. Produced by Joanna Reed (Director, Same Planet Performance Project (SPPP)) and Michelle Kranicke (Director, Zephyr Dance), even the title is subjective, as Reed says, “A number felt neutral, that the festival could be anything at any time” (Newcity 2024). On November 15, SPPP, Zephyr Dance, Ishti Collective and independent artist, Tea-Buggz, transformed Dovetail’s intimate black box performance space into an enigmatic realm rife with mysticism, pathos, jubilance and humanoid machine-men.

“IT WAS WHAT IT WAS,” with Same Planet Performance Project; Photo by Vin Reed

SPPP gave a rousing performance of “IT WAS WHAT IT WAS,” a premiere choreographed by Reed and featuring dancers Chloe Michels, Kathryn Hetrick, Sam Crouch and Patrick Burns. Despite the company’s name, Same Planet, the work felt like traveling to different worlds, each one distinct. What lifeforms are these: Crouch and Hetrick roll across the ground, seemingly pushed by the rushing sounds of traffic from outside, and they slap the ground hard at the end of each movement phrase. A jaunty Klezmer march melts into the scene, and so do Michels and Burns, engaging in a formal waltz around the perambulating creatures beneath them. A Marxist might view this as a critique of class hierarchy; a romanticist might see the rolling dancers as an ever-changing, sometimes violent, Earth, supporting the proclivities of its inhabitants, unaware of the turbulence underground as they waltz across its plains.

Burns and Michels break away in a duet that begins comedic and ends disturbing. Michels is pushed, spun and coerced to keep moving, beads of sweat forming on her forehead, as Burns aggressively shouts, “Come on!” At first, it feels like a joke, but as Michels is impelled to groove around the circumference of the space, the tone goes from lighthearted to downright abusive! That one may identify with either Burns or Michels, or both, leaves a lasting impression about power imbalance in any relationship.

“IT WAS WHAT IT WAS,” with Same Planet Performance Project; Photo by Vin Reed

Reed herself enters the scene, dressed in black and speaking into a microphone, uttering filler sounds, like “mmm,” “um” and “uh uh.” This break of the fourth wall is a necessary cooldown, where the artist seizes control of a work that threatens to grow beyond their control. The artist prevails! The piece ends with the lights dimming on a frenetic dance party, the company grabbing at each other and twitching like exposed nerves. Reed and SPPP weave a masterful story, provocative and thought-provoking.

“Seen/Unseen” by Ishti Collective undulates between heat and coolness, discovery and loss. A large mirror is placed in a corner, creating the illusion that the dancers have been doubled in number, like doppelgangers dancing far off in the distance. Dancers Ashwaty Chennat, Dani Oblitas, Lauren Reed, Preeti Veerlapati and Kinnari Vora begin as temple dancers from the past, their paths intertwining as they reach with their arms and cradle the air as if it were a small, limp body. South Asian dance-inspired hand gestures impart a mystical quality to the work, their nimble fingers at once fluid and precise. They split into two groups, one bathed in red light, the other in blue; dancers in the red move in cooperation, like an ocean building a wave and moving it along, while dancers in the blue struggle to reach for something and grab their throats. When the two mix, it is like an incompatible chemical reaction, and they are left shuddering and pulsing, like waiting for something bad to happen. Ishti Collective’s co-choreographic process is on full display, and the strengths of each dancer, while distinct, blend beautifully together.

“Seen/Unseen,” with Ishti Collective; Photo by Vin Reed

Kranicke and Molly Strom of Zephyr Dance present a highly interpretive movement development that moves as slow and builds as high as an iceberg. On one side of the space and at adjacent corners, Kranicke descending a ramped platform and Strom at ground level, they begin a high-stepping, mechanical march to the other end of the floor, where a bench beckons them to sit. Over ornate baroque music, they act like glitching machines, one bending forward as the other bends sideways, barely missing each other. A sense of anxiety pervades the work like the two are in an intense conflict, although their expressions remain ambivalent towards one another. The work ends with Kranicke being swallowed up beneath the bench as Strom replaces her by ascending the ramped platform, perhaps a note on how change and renewal, though sometimes chaotic, are unavoidable.

Set to the hit Styx song, “Mr. Roboto,” Torrence “Tea-Buggz” Griffin and two collaborators bring the tune to life by, what else, performing in the style of “the robot.” Dressed in black suits and dark sunglasses, the collaborators monitor Tea-Buggz like scientists observing a specimen. Tea-Buggz, in a shiny metallic mask, articulates his hands, arms and neck in an exegetic interpretation of the song’s lyrics. The dancing remains mostly static and stuck in place, and I, sitting on one side of the two-sided audience, saw mostly the dancers’ backs, and a slight rotation would have been appreciated. Regardless, the work was a fun palette cleanser that stood out among the otherwise headier works in the program.

It would be simple to go on about all the stories and scenarios that these works inspired in my mind, but all will inevitably pale in comparison to what you yourself might conjure. My advice? Don’t miss out on next year’s “3320,” a ripe opportunity to feed your imagination.

Same Planet Performance Project and Zephyr Dance presented the “3320” dance festival Nov. 7-8 & 14-15 at Dovetail Studios, 2853 W Montrose. First-week performances included work by Damon Green, Jackie Stewart and Joseph Ravens. For more information, check out the event page by clicking HERE.

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