Impressions of Boomerang Dance & Performance Project's "Repercussion"

Three brothers, inextricably bound together, play off their connection. As one accepts the idiosyncrasies of a sibling, two young men ignore the many times their eccentric friend pulls away or ignores their beat; they remain steadfast in their fascination for how they can manipulate the energy looping between them.

 

In Repercussion, we are transported to a basement where boys do what boys do - bang on drums, fight, tumble, and test their boundaries. Often times, the drummer, Greg Saunier, keeps playing the same rhythm in search of something that will resonate within. His large hands scratch the surface of the drum, a pathetic moan for relief that never comes. Matty Davis and Adrian Galvin twice dismantle his drum set - taking first the bass drum and secondly, more winningly, the cymbal, in a way to engage him perhaps, or simply, as a territorial invasion. Galvin shakes the cymbal with furious insistence.

 

These three enter the stage on a diagonal in silence, one on the floor, Davis slowly advancing the trio, Galvin supporting the elbow of Saunier. The piece closes with a similar crawl. The performance arches with some superb moments when the two dancers twirl each other, like ice dancers, completing the move with a foot smashing a cymbal.

 

Dixon Place’s Artistic Director Ellie Covan introduced the evening by explaining how she often presents works-in-progress and commissions, of which Repercussion is one. Repercussion appears, however, more like a work-in-progress in which phrasing, dynamics, and editing are still to come. Often times, one notion is explored as one might in a contact improvisation, or a variation is discovered, but then not developed. For example, In the beginning, one guy pokes at another, the poked then pushes away the arm of poker. This exchange is repeated without emotion until the poker bangs the drum held by the third. This triangular idea suggests that a climax of exciting sound or movement might follow, but one doesn’t. 

 

The existentialist premise of Repercussion is interesting. The dancers are strong and intense, willing to throw themselves with abandon. Undercutting the macho mood of a frat-boy rumble, Galvin sings in a high-pitch a text from Lewis Hyde, the most prominent sentiment being a failure to cope.

---