Some of my fondest memories from my younger years involve participating in come-one-come-all showcases, where up-and-coming choreographers and dancers mix with seasoned professionals, and all get the opportunity to flex their muscles and strut their stuff. Thanks to Bodies of Water, a collective and artist hub established in 2023 by Artistic Director Esther Pauline Farley, the Fluid Expressions Artist Festival at the Den Theater on Sept. 1 lived up to the organization’s mission to “flood the city with opportunities for dancers and artists in all stages of their careers, and to showcase their talent and build a thriving community.”
The show featured an impressive sixteen works of dance by various choreographers. The range of emotion was primarily limited to “dystopian orchestral” music, characterized by eerie, buzzing digitized string instrument harmonies intertwined with ominous percussion. Keli Gunn’s “MASC” exemplifies this aesthetic, showcasing dancers Reid Kostroun, Jess Morales, Gianna Rotkvich and Lindsey Scouten. A row of backlights illuminates robotic automatons, their heads haloed by bright light. They walk in intricate patterns, their paths creating polygonal shapes. This pedestrian movement evolves into two groups performing complementary counterpoint phrases before exploding into a one-on-one dance-martial arts battle. One of the longer works in the show, Gunn uses the time to develop a complete story about breaking the chains of conformity.
Celine Spinka-O’Brien’s reimagined “WESTSIDE” is a playful duet set to a piano suite by J.S. Bach, deviating from the futuristic music trend. Dancers Devon Lloyd and Lindsey Scouten engage in a game of cat and mouse, chasing, capturing and releasing each other. They interact with the teasing melody through precisely timed movement phrases. The piece serves as a metaphor for friendship, with the dancers sometimes moving in tandem and sometimes apart; when together, their palpable joy and ease are evident.
Esther Pauline Farley’s excerpt from a larger work, “Femme Fatale,” is a standout solo performed by Ava Farley to Judy Garland’s “The Man That Got Away.” The piece has a cabaret feel, with Farley dressed in a black dress against magenta backlighting, her expression nonchalant. During legato phrases, she moves broadly like a ragdoll being whisked from side to side; then, she collapses, tumbles, crawls and rolls on the floor before popping up with a sultry shoulder roll—still classy! Closing the first act, “Femme Fatale” benefits from its change in tone, offering a valuable lesson to all up-and-coming choreographers: Be Different!
Fluid Expressions Artist Festival presented by Bodies of Water at The Den Theatre
The rest of the show maintained a similar feel but with some variety. Tracy Halloran’s “Searching for Something” is a duet with a flowing style that closely follows the lyrics of the music. “Fading,” a solo created and performed by Corinne Dummel, features a lone figure carving pathways through a spotlight like an adventurer cutting through dense jungle foliage. Kayla Castellon’s “Alchemy” showcases four dancers prowling like jungle beasts searching for a fight. Bruna Salgado’s “Reminisce” and Catie and Abbie Armbrecht’s “Tuning In” are duets notable for their elegance and ease of movement, both refreshing and uplifting.
Some works felt like the choreographers were trying to prove something by incorporating every trick in the book. Dancer and choreographer Nissa Wood’s “As Above So Below” is a “kitchen sink” routine, a flurry of movement with little direction but abundant energy and variety. Cobin Phillips performs his original work, “Imitation Studies,” with statuesque poses that quickly switch in a process of start, melt, build back up and start again. Sarah Bodony’s “Maestro” is a fun number featuring two dancers in tuxedos acting as conductors of an orchestra, using stiff arms as batons that swipe and swell with the music—an enjoyable concept! “Three Fold” by Breanne Ranta incorporates foot-stomping and hand-clapping, adding pleasing rhythmic accents and technique that brings the dancers’ bodies low to the floor. Haley Tarling’s “Erosion,” performed by Sydney Jones, has Jones floating lightly across the floor with hands grasped to her chest, as if physically holding her heart from bursting. Amanda McLoughlin’s “a classic” is a quirky trio set to The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” which begins promisingly but suffers from timing issues that obscure the artist’s intention.
This one-day festival, produced by Bodies of Water, took me back to my early days as a dancer at the now-defunct Dance Chicago festival, where I watched the work of seasoned choreographers in small, intimate spaces and wondered which emerging artists would become the next big thing. The overall impression left by the works in Fluid Expressions Artist Festival made me feel like I was peering into a crystal ball to glimpse the future of dance in Chicago—and the future looks bright!
For more information about Bodies of Water and the Fluid Expressions Artist Festival, click the company link below.
