Over an unsually chilly weekend in Los Angeles, a large posse of creatives — Blue13 Dance Company — lived up to its colorful name, staging a site-specific work masterminded by choreographer Achinta McDaniel, a large snippet of which we enjoyed in dress rehearsal. In a small city comprised of eight Victorian homes of Heritage Square Museum some dating to the turn of the century, McDaniel’s dancers explored nooks, crannies, and their own plasticity in making a happening out of McDaniel’s “Soliloquy,” last weekend Audience took part too, as McDaniel’s fashioned the thing as an “immersive” event. I was the “guest” at an informal dinner party, seated at a round, linen-clothed table, as fussy servers swapped seats with guests but the meal did not arrive.
McDaniel, whose exuberant choreography crosses a number of genres from Bollywood to Hip-Hop, and a wonderful flowing modern dance, designed the work as a meditation on “the intersection of technology, disruption, inclusion, and diaspora.” The moody and evocative houses, in various states of refurbishment and even furnishing, provided the launching pad for much creative improvisation and collaboration between some very excellent dancers. Several of them are McDaniel students at USC’s Glorya Kaufman School of dance.
We saw, and enjoyed Blue13’s prior outing at Heritage, Shaadi, a memorable event during the COVID pandemic.
photo credit, slade segerson for blue13 and artsmeme