Tulsa Ballet's Signature Series

On May 14th I went to see Tulsa Ballet's 2023 Signature Series at Tulsa University's Lorton Performance Center where they performed three modern works from well-known choregraphers. From what I understand, Tulsa Ballet does a signature series performance where they perform more modern works at the end of every season and this was my first time experiencing it. The performances include Within by choregrapher Katarzyna Kozielska, Cacti by choregrapher Alexander Ekman, and While You Were Gone by choregrapher Jennifer Weber. I will say in advance that Cacti was my favorite out of the selection of performances they did that night and I will expound on that in a little bit. While You Were Gone definitely comes in second for how I enjoyed it, but I have to admit that that is because I read the section about it in the program pamphlet after the performance, and so I have a greater appreciation of what it was all about because now I see it as moving than beforehand. I really should make sure to them before the performances actually happen because then it will make more sense to me. Mental note for next time. 

      The first performance, While You Were Gone, first started off with a light on a stand on the middle of the stage where it lit up, and with it lighting up first inspired the lone dancer that was on stage first to dance and then for the others to joined. The dancers had moved and danced with this light with one another, and it was obvious that this light is of some symbolic importance right away, but I could not at the time figure out why it was and what it represented. I really enjoyed the music they used by Nu Deco Ensemble which used songs from the group OutKast songs such as B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad) and The Whole World, and I was singing along to them because I love listening to their songs. I could tell that this is suppose to be very moving, but I was still confused as to what exactly was happening. Anyway, as I was looking at the program pamplet a couple nights ago, I finally came to know that the performance is inspired by the theater tradition of a ghostlight, which is "a single light left on in a theater on an empty stage to appease the ghosts of performers past who may haunt the theater if not given light to perform themselves after hours." This performance is to imagine what would happen if the gohosts of the theater came back to put on a show and is also inspired by the ghostlights that were left on around the world for months during the recent pandemic. I absolutely love the concept of a ghostlight and how many theaters left a light during the pandemic, and I didn't even know it! This is one of the coolest things I have every heard of! I think that is such a moving tradition and I can't believe that I have never heard of that before. I wonder if other performing artists and companies aside from dancers who also have a tradition like that of their own. It is such as romantic concept. This piece, according to the program pamphlet, also fuses influences of ballet and hip hop together, hence the OutKast songs, and looking back at it now in my mind, I think it was done pretty well. 

      The second performance was Within by Kozielska and I do not know how I feel about it. I remember there being a lot of quick and sharp movements from the dancers a swell as quick paced and high pitched music. That makes it sound like it was dance music, but it is not. The music played in this performance was Michael Gordon's Weather One. I did wonder if the dancers performing in that piece would get dizzy from how they were moving and dancing because there were a lot of twisting and it appeared as though there were kind of throwing their upper body quite a bit, as weird as that may sound. According to the choregrapher, the piece is based on her own personal life experiences and learning how to "dance in the rain," by learning how to live in the moment and how to enjoy the journey of life. It was definitely abstract, for sure. It was by no means a bad performance, I at some point got overstimulated by some of the music used in it. It just was not for me and that is totally okay. At least I get to experience it and that's good enough for me. 

      The third performance, Cacti, my favorite performance from that event, was also the strangest performance I have ever seen. I was trying to explain to my coworker after clocking off of work the next morning by referencing a common scene in television shows in the past (maybe even today's shows, I don't watch much television anymore) where people in the show would go to a performance that someone they know is in and is there to support said person. However, the performance itself is so weird, strange, and abstract that it is so perplexing to watch. That was my experience with this performance. I am happy to say that I experienced that for the very first time on May 14, 2023. Now, I am not necessarily sayng that in a negative way or to make fun of it (although I totally am), I am saying it because I did actually really enjoy it. I had so much fun trying to explain this to my coworker that next morning. I remember watching this as it was happening and how much it reminded me of a Surreatlist independent film I watched for an assignment in my Introduction to Film class when I was getting my bachelor degree because of how weird it was. The film I am thinking about, by the way, is called The Holy Mountain made in 1973 and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Surrealistic is probably not the best word to describe this performance, but more appropriately Dada-esque, for sure. The music played in this performance was Symphony in D Minor, "Death and the Maiden" IV by Franz Schubert; String Quartet in A major, Hob. III:24 IV; Allegro; Sonata No.V "Sitio" from Die sieben letzen Worte unseres Eriosers am Kreuze; Hob. XX:1b by Franz Joesph Haydn; and String Quartet No. 9 in C major, Op. 59 No. 3II. by Ludwig van Beethoven. The dancers danced with cacti (I presume fake ones, of course) and some of them tossed cacti to one another, then two rectangular lights on each side fo the stage with the word 'cacti' on it descended and then ascended as the dancers were doing their thing. The performance is very long, but it is very silly. A lot of silly dancing and breathwork involved throughout the whole thing. It ended with each dancer holding out these cacti in front of them and making scary, menacing faces to the audience as they slowly walked towards the front of the stage. It was all about the cacti. The choreapher Ekman, explains in the program pamphlet that it was created a few years ago for the Nederlands Dance Theater in the Hague and it is about how we view art and how we often feel the need to analyze and understand art. Also, it was inspired by comments his friends expressed about modern art and how they felt they didn't understand it, and it tackles the discussion about art criticism. The choregrapher feels that it isn't fair how someone (like an art critic) can make the ultimate descision as to whether or not a piece of work is good or not for everyone else, and not let people decide for themselves. I can definitely understand where he is coming from in a sense, because from going to art school myself, I had learned to understand that not everybody gets the same impression looking at the same art piece, and each person will have a different experience from the other. That does not mean that that piece is bad, wrong, or is invalid, it is just a fact of life. We do have the exact experience as everyone else and that is okay. Art in any form is not objective. 

      Anyway, that was by experience on that day. I'll be back.