For the next six weeks, Jan. 12 through Feb. 18, 2024, the Westside’s Odyssey Theatre Ensemble’s home becomes the energized site for local and international contemporary dance. In its septenary evocation, the host, curator and festival co-founder, Barbara Mueller–Wittmann, welcomes a diverse range of aesthetics in movement-based theater.
Each week launches a different program. Twenty choreographers, 49 performers, four world premieres with varying themes and subject matter will all explode in performances Friday and Saturday nights (8 p.m.) and Sunday matinees (2 p.m.).
This first week, Jan. 12-14, Rebecca Pappas exposes “We Are Destroying Ourselves: A Dance Wrecking.” Though this evening-length piece begins at 8 p.m. (or 2 p.m.), there will be a pre-show “Open Dance Wrecking” that begins 1½ hours before that. Press materials disclose that at each event, an invited movement artist will “dismantle and remake one of Pappas’ dances in real time.” Other than that these guests are Shoji Yamasaki (Friday), Alfono Cervera (Saturday) and Melanie Rios Glaser (Sunday), there is no further description of these happenings.
Weekend No. 2, Jan. 19-21: the world premiere of “Archetype,” a collection of dances inspired by psychiatrist Carl Jung’s theories and choreographed by Lily Chumas, Sadie Guthrie, Mekinna Knight, Nia Mason, Iyana Monet, Robby Olmos, Madi Ostratch and Olivia Vannucci.
Weekend No. 3, Jan. 26-28: Mexican dance company Punto de Inflexión, directed by Stephanie García, reveals three separate dances related to identity, gender, emotions and colonialism. Its work is presented with the support of the Sistema de Apoyos a la Creación y Proyectos Culturales of Mexico.
Weekend No. 4, Feb. 2-4: The ensemble named Goblin Party presents the world premiere of “Nomad.” Conceived and directed by Hyoin Jun, the show is choreographed by Jun, Mizuki Sako and Tulsi Shah This theatrical adventure is described as “an imaginative nomadic tribe [that] travels, explores and performs a way of living of their own way.”
Weekend No. 5, Feb. 9-11: “how i became kinder, and kinder” is a septet created by dance maker Azuki Umeda, with music by Robert Gaar, Lucy Liyou and her own devised score. This work is said to “explore sounds that unify meaning in movement.” (Content advisory: the sound score includes explicit language.)
Weekend No. 6, Feb. 16-18: Galiana&Nikolchev’s The Useless Room presents the world premiere of “The Un(Double).” Performers Łukasz Przytarski, Chris Polick and Anthony Nikolchev work with an adaptation by Anthony Nikolchev of The Double by Fyodor Dostoevsky and various court transcripts to investigate free will in this physical dance/theater journey.
—Benn Widdey, Culture Spot LA
Location:
Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., LA 90025
Tickets:
$25 or three-show pass for $60 https://odysseytheatre.com/dance/
Information:
Photo credit: “We Are Destroying Ourselves: A Dance Wrecking” / John Atashian