The Seldoms present "Sightline" at Ruth Page Center

“Sightline,” a world premiere by The Seldoms, opened at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts on Thursday. In another of several collaborations with Scottish artist Fraser Taylor, choreographer and The Seldoms director, Carrie Hanson strays away from the strong and distinct social messages of her previous artistic focus, and in doing so, creates some of her most compelling work to date. Music, textile art, movement and costumes cohesively unite, and “Sightline” feels dense and fresh. It’s a tasty, layered work, filled with unexpected reveals and earthy, muscular dancing.

Taylor’s striking column-like designs transform the stage into a world in which six skilled performers explore and connect. This curious space, simultaneously ancient and contemporary, gives off a “lost city” vibe. Scattered throughout, ceiling-to-floor two-sided black fabric panels hang, adorned with blocky, linear paint patterns alluding to architecture and human figures. Dancers wander among these vast pillars like adventurers discovering remnants of an old Roman development. Hanson lets us know they aren’t tourists in this dreamy town square. Even though they are just passing through, they live in this place.

The overall urban and angular look of the piece softens with the accompanying short segments of the lively Baroque viola da gamba music of Marin Marais. The dance unfolds in a series of sinewy, articulate sections (movement generated in part by the strong company performers Sophie Minouche Allen, Laren Chang, Damon D. Green, Haley Marcin, Rachel Newton, and Dillon Zamora), often mimicking the shapes on the fabric. Oversized stiff, abstract black and white collared shirts, also designed by Taylor, conceal the torso and emphasize the limbs. Bare legs slice and jab from underneath long asymmetrical shirttails, supple arms and shoulders roll as if devoid of bones. An embrace creates a means of escape, and later morphs into a weight-bearing pull.

Favoring earthy deep lunges, long reaches and a connection to the ground, the dancers roll, ooze and meld. A bas-relief come to life, they often join hands at the wrists in an exaggerated handshake from which tension grows. They drop like rag dolls, only to be caught just before hitting the floor. One guides another up a human staircase of thighs, shoulders, backs and hands as if carefully ascending to enter a mysterious dwelling. Circling together, they breathe and pulse, hearts beating as one. Haley Marcin, in a strong solo turn, places her body into seemingly awkward positions with surprising precision, speed and great beauty.

Never static, the stage space fluidly shifts as fabric pieces turn, gradually uncovering more red. Pulled to the side, panels frame different vantage points or create places of concealment, hiding everything but a sliver of shirttail or a few fingers.

In one stunning moment, panels are drawn back, unveiling a new set of red fabric columns deep upstage, like the smoky, surreal discovery of a distant lost ruins. Using the space beyond the scrim brings breathtaking depth and dimension. The room suddenly feels much bigger than it is, heightening the sense that we are witnessing an event without limits.

When the immobility of the costumes starts to feel too restrictive, Hanson and Taylor wisely build in a metamorphosis. Stiff shirts unwind into strange, artsy straitjackets with empty arms draping, dragging and swirling. This haunting image feels different, risky and exciting, but too brief and undeveloped. Kevin Rechner’s lighting design finds its best moment in a pair of moody trios lit in near silhouette, echoing the bas-relief feeling. A few unfortunate unintended flashes of random bright lights distracted from the action a few times during Thursday’s show.

Late in the piece, form-fitting shorts and tank tops replace the baggy over-starched shirts and give emphasis to luscious torso movement. Clasping hands in an elastic line the group strengthens yet crumbles together. With fragmented movement, akin to the rib-like line segments in Taylors designs, dancers disjointedly turn their heads and pulse their arms as if under a strobe light. Time’s up for these apparitions/explorers and they move on leaving one last striking image. Marcin lingers alone in the folds of fabric, paying a soft and loving homage to the fleeting experience. Sans heavy thinking or political message, “Sightline” is a beauty of a meditation on time and human connection. Hanson and Taylor know just what the world needs right now.

“Sightline” runs May 1-3 at 7:30pm and May 4 at 2pm at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn. Tickets are $30-100 on sale at https://www.theseldoms.org/up-coming or Eventbrite http://bit.ly/4iaJxoM