Samantha Van Saun completed her requirements for a master's degree in dance with a self-choreographed concert on Saturday Sept. 6 and Sunday Sept. 7. Van Saun presented a concert entitled "Road to Salvation," staged at Friendship Heights' Jack Guidone Theater. The performance was respectfully attended and danced by a committed cast of seven.
Van Saun, who states that "the dances I create are inspired by God," dedicated the concert to telling her own story of personal salvation: "The situations encountered and the paths that run cross and parallel along the way."
She translated her deep religious experience, which began with a revelation while traveling through Australia, into six largely transparent works. It is the transparency which makes up both the strength and the weakness of the works.
The most engaging pieces, "A Prayer," "Dead End," Sherrill Lilly's "Intersection" and Melanie George's "Providence" shared a deftness and grace in handling existential material.
"Prayer," the opener, which was danced in silence, began with a woman revealed in a center spot, slowly lifting one arm and then the other, eventually wrapping them around herself like a cloak. As the dancers progressed into a duet, the movement developed into motions of cutting away at the space, the ties to the material world, pulling down from above and reaching to something greater.
"Prayer" effectively used dynamic tensions, but the dancers, despite being in occasional unison gave the appearance of distance instead of unity in this piece which seemed to be about bridging gaps, not exposing them.
"Dead End," a piece about being caught in a situation with no way out, according to Van Saun, left a warm place to begin with three women holding hands downstage, offering instant engagement. The dancers, robed in dirt-red choir gowns, supported the tribulations of one in their group, but the slow methodical rotations and placements of palms to palms drew one into the group and into the pain of the dancer.
The live music was eloquently sung by Donyell Tibbs, whose milky and effervescent voice unfortunately gave way to reedy tones when she wasn't in the middle levels of her projection. Her interpretation of the lyrics: "I'm so lost without you," carried the darkness and the light, which was captured in the piece's final image - a leap into full support by the other two dancers.
Guest artist Sherrill Lilly's piece "Intersection" most notably used variations of gesture. The lyrics, "When I think about you I'm reminded to praise you," and the refrain, "Thank you," accompanied gestures which included reaching forward in space and seemingly putting one's hands on someone much taller than oneself, evocative of a "big brother" relationship with God.
The final image was particularly effective - the two dancers seemed to be searching in the dark independently for something. They found each other, pressed palms, and as the lights dimmed, came together.
"Providence," choreographed by Melanie George and danced by Van Saun seemed to explore the acceptance of providence in one's life. Set to the music of Ralph Vaughn Williams, "Providence" was richly textured, with short intense bursts and wallowing slow motions. Draped in a silky red nightgown, the wafting gestures of the piece encouraged one to feel like one was experiencing an intimate ritual, a spiritual washing of the hair. And though choreographed by another person, images of embracing, and prayer-like motion which were common to other pieces in the concert entered the vocabulary.
The performance spoke to the united vision which was shared by all of the dancers and the choreographers who undertook this project. The guest choreographers and dancers, Rashidah Goodwin, Letia Jones, John Niemi, Michelle Street and Mystekque Townsend, clearly were all engaged in the ideas, as well as the motions, created on stage. This transparent vision allowed for a resonant experience, which, while not having the depth of a Chesterton or Heschel text, illuminated one woman's journey, and by extension, both the faith which carries us through the dark times and the larger experience of religion.
