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AUDIENCE REVIEW: Buglisi Dance Theatre kicks off its 25th Anniversary Season

Company:
Buglisi Dance Theatre

Performance Date:
May 1, 2018

Freeform Review:

The Buglisi Dance Theatre launched its 25th anniversary season on May 1st at the Ailey Citigroup Theater with Artistic Director Jacqulyn Buglisi's Moss #5 Variation: Dialogues on what makes us Human, one of five variations created over a two year period, along with Bare to the Wall Suite, Prelude, and Buglisi's Requiem. The Requiem is the one that lingers in my mind.

Set to the thirty-five minute Gabriel Faure Requiem, composed between 1887 and 1890, this meditative work for five women creates an opportunity for both the performer and the audience to focus on the miracle of prayer. Grief is transformed into a catalyst to connect with the spirit world. Gradually, as the dancers sweep their regal dresses around themselves, and rise on boxes with the fabric spilling around the stage like roots burrowing into the earth, they become shamans of a rarified nature. These shamans summon us to breathe in a supernatural energy, and exhale any doubts of its existence. Without a trace of hysteria, the dancers console themselves with the intensity of their belief.

When the dancers came forward to bow, some seemed dazed and a little reluctant to leave their trance like state.

Author:
Deirdre Towers

Photo Credit:
Ashley Merker. Photo