By: Steevens Remelus
Suchness:
The piece begins slowly, with controlled movements and silence, and stays this way with the audio sprinkled in. Bits came in and fled, initially confusing me about what was occurring. However, this contributed to the message I took from it later on, acknowledging these slow moments needed to be cherished. When the tape recorder comes in and starts playing audio with the static effect (like a VHS player), it starts to feel like a memory and not so much like interpretive art – moments of childhood, moments of joy.
Eventually, all the movements of slowness and quickness start to combine beautifully. The moment that stood out to me the most was the sunset. Every character and their beautifully done makeup stared into the orange light and, one by one, left, each at a different pace. I’m not sure why, but I guess it’s the feeling of moving at your own pace and not being able to forever enjoy the moments of relaxation or beauty. Reflecting on it now helps me better understand why I felt like crying and wish I had gone to see it again.
This is why I think this piece gets the name “Suchness”. All the changes in pace, the incomplete and partial elements in everything, the movement, and the atmosphere create all the dialogue. Chanel, who worked backstage with wardrobe, gave her interpretation, “Their dance movements were ethereally soft, carrying the audience to fascinating and contemplative thought processes. This improvisation added a touch of surprise to make every movement different and unique.”
Pendulum:
There’s one reason why we go to the club: to distract ourselves from the reality of our lives. We want to get pumped, hang out with our friends, or become less aware of existence. Some of us head to the club and drink or take substances so that the outside world doesn’t feel as real and the joyous effects take over. What’s done well in this performance is how the club culture is fully transported to us; we’re tossed into the high energy, music blasting, dancing, and movement of dancers.
While it's easy to focus on the excitement and energy of the crowd, it's easy to overlook the people around you and their stories, often unnoticed, brought into light by a performance like this.
When creating Pendulum, Xavier wanted to highlight different stories. “Even if they were of the generic type or brand, I still wanted it to be kind of relatable because these are things that, even though they're generic, people understand and relate to. ”
There’s fantasy and realism put into the narrative to shed positive light on the community, some of the stories being personal. Yes, even with the effects of the hype and stimulation in the club, the problems still find their way to creep in.
With TJ’s scene in the red room, Xavier recalled from his own experiences. “I wanted to make sure that people, with lighting and music, feel like they’re high. I really wanted people to have this like, ‘ooph,’ like a weight was lifted off your shoulders… sometimes when people are rolling, people feel amazing beautiful and just want to have fun and let go. And then sometimes when you’re mixing and drinking on top of things and other stuff, it’s not that great and not that fun.”
The dopamine spikes could be temporary, and the doubts fill your mind, just to be washed away again. Promiscuous risks taken in this jungle test your willingness to be vulnerable. Romantic challenges test your loyalty and understanding of one another. While everything feels fast initially, it slows down in these moments and puts you back in perspective: you’re still in reality and going to face it once it's all over, but should cherish these moments while you can. However, accepting who and where you are makes reality all the more possible.
We end the performance off with a drag show, a beautiful display of queerness, along with some comedy. It makes the statement that this is who we are while showing comfort in ourselves. Although raunchy, it’s real. “I know some of it probably was a little raunchy, a little uncomfortable. That’s part of the reason why I’m very big on making it uncomfortable for people, a lot of it is making people think,” Xavier explained.
Making people think helps with confronting the reality of queer life. When asked about how more explicitness would change the story, Xavier replied, “In nightlife, depending where you go, there are nights where it’s meant just for sex only… so I wanted to make sure that it was as tame as possible where the point still got across… If everything was explicit, then everything would be a whole different ball game.” It can get crazy, and it can be sexual, but the actions are normal and done in an effort to feel free.
So why is the piece called Pendulum? Aside from the allusion to Climax, the story's narratives and nightlife dynamic match the definition and symbolism of a pendulum. Pendulums are weights hung from a point that lets them swing freely forward and back, but they can also be used to refer to the tendency of a situation to oscillate between one extreme and another. “Basically the same thing as Pendulum where it just feels like there’s so many things happening at once, and it’s only a matter of time until we hit a point in the night where it’s about time to go.”
Despite how hectic and nerve-wracking putting it together and seeing the vision might have been, the group chemistry and Xavier and Madelyn’s descriptiveness made it all come together. The creator and dancers' relationship with one another – trusting in him with their cues and artistic speech, trusting in allowing the dancers to do their own thing and help with the creative process, and pushing one another – completed it all.
