The Tripod

Issue date: 2/2/03 Section: Arts

"Imagine that your body is a nation; its skin is its borders. Express that in movement. Go." This invitation to self-expression was the opening to David Dorfman Dance's performance of their latest piece, See Level, last Friday night at eight in the Goodwin Theater of the Austin Arts Center.
The image of body as nation presented in the opening text was the pervading metaphor of the night. This piece explores, through movement, the concept our bodies as nations and what happens when you want to unite with another nation, or tell another "your nation repulses me." As an extension of that idea, the piece explores human touch and the decision to either stay away or decide to get close.

The piece began with the projection of blue water on a lowered screen (courtesy of video/visual designer Samuael Topiary) with dancer Paul Matteson behind it asking us to imagine body as nation.

The screen rose to reveal three other dancers: Abby Crain, Jennifer Nugent, and Joseph Poulson. The athleticism and physical dexterity of the dancers was impressive throughout the piece. As they danced, often leaping across the space, they moved their bodies like they were searching to create shapes that had never been seen before, like they were searching to move their bodies in a way they had never been moved before. As easy as they made many of their moves appear (the women lifting the men with seemingly little effort), you could still sense the struggle within them to go beyond their limitations, to push the boundaries of self-discovery and expression through movement.

One of the most visually striking moments of the piece was when two of the dancers supported the arms of another dancer while she walked on the body of the fourth dancer. As she would take a step, he would move to slide more of himself before her path for her to tread on.
That image of a person, and in that person a nation, stepping on another nation was very powerful. The trod upon nation suddenly refused to place himself under the stepping nation's foot and a battle ensued with the nation on the floor dodging the quick and stamping foot of the offended, stepping nation.

As much as the piece dealt with violence between the nations, it also dealt with love and empathy between them. In one part of the piece, dancers Matteson and Nugent decided to work at becoming each other through movement. As they both worked to emulate the moves of the other, their attempts were at first insulting to the person being impersonated, but gradually the person emulated was satisfied with the movements and encouraged the impersonator to take them to the next level, a level beyond what the person being imitated thought their body was capable of achieving.

David Dorfman revealed in a talk he gave to the sophomore InterArts class that this idea of empathy, of dancing a piece in another dancer's movements, and the idea of our bodies being nations at war, stemmed from the events of September 11th - the point of conception of this piece.

The questions that were born out of that tragedy that Dorfman was most interested in were those of perspective: how can you gain perspective, especially when it comes to things happening this very moment, and empathy: how can you be genuinely empathetic when you are so far removed from tragedies like September 11th. Dorfman describes his work as "looking for the truth behind why we do things because social change begins on a personal level."

By allowing his dancers to speak for themselves through text and movement, Dorfman allowed the audience to see the dancers as more than mere dancers and it was at that point of connection that the audience could be touched on a personal level.

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