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Gina Gibney Dance review
If the terms “sluffing,” “rolling point” or “high table” mean anything to you than you will understand the vocabulary of Gina Gibney’s new work The Distance Between Us. If those words mean nothing to you than the movement of the piece will seem wild and spatially invasive. As a piece developed through the improvisation of the dancers, the movement still has strong contact improvisational moments that retain their untamed defiance.
The evening opens with a sequence of dancers performing short solos, exploring their closeness to or distance from their own bodies. They hug themselves, caress their hair or lightly graze a shoulder. These simple gestures begin what becomes an examination of the distance between ourselves and our own bodies, our bodies in relation to another body and our distance in a community.
The work that follows consists mainly of duets involving some form of touch. What is remarkable about the work is not the athletic setting of the dance but rather its sensual and theatrical nature. “Exploration” may be the most overused term in describing dance, but these duets define the term at its fullest. The dancers seem to be delving into each other and finding regions hitherto unknown. That focus on exploring a partner creates an innocence and genuineness that is at once beautiful to watch and slightly awkward. It almost seems like an invasion of privacy.
The original score by Ryan Lott is a fusion soundscape in the style of Sigur Ros or the instrumental work of Sufjan Stevens. The composite of ambient sounds, piano solos and driving electronic beats creates an evocative environment and is a true collaboration with the movement.
In continuing the examination of distance in a community, the dancers convey the deep strain of finding equilibrium in a group. By the end of the dance viewers become aware of the distance between dancers that before seemed only ‘normal’ spacing. Even the regularity of the spacing between audience members begins to have significance.