Last Friday, the Moore Theater was graced with "Lend Me Your Eyes," the latest offering from Brazil's Quasar Dance Company and the troupe's first performance at the Hopkins Center. Despite being a visual treat for Dartmouth's dance fans, the show ultimately fails to deliver a coherent message.
From a technical standpoint, Friday's performance of "Lend Me Your Eyes" was an outright triumph. All the necessary elements to a successful production were present in outstanding form.
Kudos are due to choreographer Henrique Rodovalho for his ability to create dances that were at once grotesque and gorgeous. Rodovalho seems to have an innate understanding of the ways in which the human body can -- and cannot -- move; thus, though his dances were characterized by violent and spasmodic writhing, they maintained a certain eerie gracefulness that was wonderful to behold.
Rodovalho's variety of influences was likewise apparent, as he combined elements of break dancing, martial arts, ballet and epileptic seizure. The dances were inventive and varied, combining leaps, kicks, rolls, hand gestures and body movements in unexpected and artistic ways.
The caliber of the choreography would be meaningless, however, were it not for the skill of Quasar's dancers. Every movement was executed with passion and precision. The gesticulation inherent in Rodovalho's dances, which might have been horrific and disturbing under other circumstances, instead invited the audience to consider the emotions the dances were meant to portray.
The duet numbers were particularly amazing. The individual dancers' movements complemented each other like musical harmony, and the carries and lifts were executed with amazing precision. Moreover, the dancers were able to add an astonishing amount of emotion to their work. In the dance about AIDS, for example, the audience was completely convinced of the love the dancers had for each other.
Both the dances and the dancers were enhanced by Quasar's sets and costumes. The stage was appropriately minimalist, occupied only by several slightly tinted panes of glass which, at times, distorted or reflected the performers' images. The costumes, somewhere between L.L. Bean and "Les Misrables," relay the essence of poverty.
Even more effective in enhancing the presentation were the videos projected during each dance. Ranging from images of the poor and suffering to Brazil's elderly relating anecdotes about their lives, the videos flavored the dances and provided clues to their meanings. Quasar showed its trademark ingenuity with these visual accompaniments, projecting them first on walls of Styrofoam, then, after these were dismantled, on sheets held by the dancers themselves.
Given the company's obvious talent and extraordinary production values, it is unfortunate that their performance failed to adequately deliver its message. The problem lay primarily in the fact that, in many ways, "Lend Me Your Eyes" was really two different shows.
The first half seemed to deal primarily with the social problems inherent in urban life, particularly in Brazil's major cities. Each number had its own theme -- poverty, AIDS, isolation -- symbolized by both its projected video and its choreography. These dances were raw and evocative, imbuing the audience with the sense of pain and inhumanity that people in these situations must feel.
The second half, by contrast, involved the stories and events of growing old. The videos, once clues to each dance's theme, were now snippets of interviews with Brazil's elderly.
Color, in both the lighting and the videos, was bright. The tone was lighthearted and joyous, and the dances were fluidly beautiful, evoking the vitality of life, even in the hearts of those for whom it is almost over.
Connecting these two disparate halves is a clumsy segue during which the Styrofoam walls were dismantled, brick by brick, and carried offstage by the company, while an image of an old man's face is projected onto a dancer's shirt.
The final number, in turn, was more of an enigma than a conclusion. Each dancer carried a round white mat into a harsh spotlight, stood on it and removed his or her shirt while stepping away from the mat into the darkness. Meanwhile, the voices of the elderly Brazilians from the videos offered their sentiments on dying.
It is unquestionable that this was a powerful and poignant depiction of death, but it failed to provide an encompassing ending to the show and left the audience wondering how the two halves could have been in any way related.
As such, the audience was awed by the visual aspects of the production, but walked away with a somewhat confused, empty feeling. Each dance, taken by itself, was an undeniable work of art, however the show as a whole, comes off as a confused jumble of messages and morals which lacked a cohesive statement.
Although "Lend Me Your Eyes" was ultimately an unfocused performance, the Quasar Dance Company proved itself as one of Brazil's -- and the world's -- rising stars, in terms of both talent and creativity. Though this weekend's shows were Quasar's first at the Hop; hopefully they will not be their last.
