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danceviewtimes
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| Clear Shadows “Blind
Spot” by
Clare Croft Though Meisha Bosma has titled her latest evening length work“Blind Spot,” Bosma seems to have a keen eye when it comes to choreography. The work, for seven dancers including Bosma, truly creates a world, albeit a disturbing one at times. Wearing tunics of burlap-like brown material the dancers interact with each other and several short films projected on the stage’s back screen to a musical collages that includes work by Phillip Glass, Shockheaded Peter, Jacques Brei and Einsturzende Neubauten. Bosma has a tendency in “Blind Spot” to let sections run long, making a point, yet continuing in the same vein for a bit longer. I questioned the relevance of one section, a short film featuring the dancers in flirty party attire, leering and winking at the camera, but, these lapses are the exceptions within the piece. Clear themes emerge, primarily one of doubling or duplicity—shadow selves that exist within a person. The theme develops in full group sections, but clearly evolves in several duets. In the most striking, a barely clad Bosma is manipulated on screen by an aggressive, muscular male partner, while Bosma stands onstage watching the film. Her back to the audience, her raised shoulders and fidgeting hands suggest shame and embarrassment. Bosma handles both overall structure and movement phrasing well, crafting a beginning, middle and end out of the series of vignettes. The choreography continually draws the dancers into pairs, until the final section where five women surround Stephanie Yezek, taunting her and grabbing her body. The “other” self seen throughout the work has won over the individual. No longer contained, its power and presence has multiplied. Movement-wise, Bosma’s dancers and choreography match well. The dance calls for an athleticism that the dancers fully inhabit, turning almost violent at times. (Bosma danced in Israel for several years and her movement quality seems reminiscent of the harsh style prominent in Israeli modern today, though she couples that with lush, feminine qualities too.) Particularly dancers Stefanie Quinones and Eileen Schwartz push the movement to its fullest. Also, effective lighting, designed by Jessica Marchant, adds to the feeling of eeriness in the piece. BosmaDance will repeat “Blind Spot” at the Black Rock Center for the Arts in Germantown, Maryland on May 22. Volume 3,
No. 18
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