This Friday and Saturday, March 27 and 28, at 8 p.m., Ledges and Bones choreographer/performer Holly Johnston and fellow movement investigator Sarri Sanchez offer “Unbecoming Woman” at the Diavolo Space in the Brewery District of downtown LA.
Described in promotional materials as “a performance event and discourse through choreography,” the dance is drawn from both autobiographical and fictional happenings and is said to “re-imagine a personal archetype for the feminine psyche.” Using terms like grace, “hag,” resistance and scars, a “wild feminine consciousness [is] unleashed from a system of patriarchy.” There is interactive media, text, sound and lighting design by John Garofalo as well.
Johnston created her company, Ledges and Bones, in and around 2005, declaring it a space for recent college graduates to continue training with her and not get lost in the far-reaching expanses that we call Los Angeles. Since then, the company has matured, the dancers have evolved and, judging from recent sightings, Johnston’s choreography has grown even more. She was selected as an artist-in-residence at the prestigious ODC Theater in San Francisco and has been teaching and presenting her work there for the past several years. She has also spent some time at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, a hotbed for creative exploration of national significance. The two women performing together have a decade of shared experience on and around the stage and bring that to fruition in this evening length duet.
It all sounds almost political and filled with a lot of not-what-you’d-expect-dance-to-be. Given that, and having witnessed both performers’ voracious physicalities, this writer envisages a very visceral, yet thought-provoking production.
—Benn Widdey, Culture Spot LA
The Diavolo Space is at 616 Moulton St., LA 90031. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, donations taken at the door. Box office opens at 7 p.m. For more information, visit www.ledgesandbones.org.