The Body Exposed

Dancer and artist Walter Dundervill was first attracted to RoseAnne Spradlin’s choreography in 1994 after witnessing a rough draft of Ends of Mercy, an emotional piece in which Spradlin later premiered at the Kitchen in 1997. Dunderville, who has now danced for Spradlin since 1999, partly locates his interest in the choreographer’s work in her ability to be expressionistic without being indulgent: “Much of the work being done back in the ’90s was postmodern and minimalist in expression. It was missing that key human aspect to dance,” Dundervill notes. He then adds: “There was—and is—a remarkable physical and emotional intensity to RoseAnne’s work. And that interior content comes through on the body level of experience.”

This week, the Bessie Award-winning Spradlin brings standby dancers Tasha Taylor, Paige Martin, Cédric Andrieux and Dundervill to Dance Theater Workshop for five nights of Survive Cycle, a collaboration with video artist Glen Fogel (who presents video portraits of the dancers) and composer Chris Peck (who plays live electronic instruments and guitar onstage during the dance).

Spradlin, who is indeed known for a depth of emotion and spare choreographic style, as well as for her interest in bringing forth provocative body issues, is sure to elicit a strong reaction from audiences both old and new. In her recent piece NOVA, presented earlier this year, dancers cut away the fabric from each other’s costumes until they were naked, metaphorically getting to the bare essence of what lay underneath. Originally commissioned by the Creative Residency Program of Dance Theater Workshop, Survive Cycle also emphasizes the themes of excision and pruning. Movement, visual projections and music fuse in an attempt to break down and atomize form and explore the age-old disjunction between form and function. Using medical and environmental imagery, as well as personal material from the dancers’ own lives, Spradlin examines cycles of destruction and how these can be contextualized in the lives of both audience members and performers.

As Dundervill sees it: “RoseAnne is a true iconoclast and really stands out as an individual.”