On
January 6, 2008 I attended the premiere of DanCoyote's new ZeroG
SkyDancers performance. DC has evolved the
art of SL performance to new heights.
Not just a virtuosic
visual display, the choreography to the superb score by ZeroOne
Paz is emotive and moving. DanCoyote and Technical Director
ZenMondo Wormser have created a dynamic environment in which the
dancers appear out of giant flowers, or pods, that open to release
them.
The costumes grow and
evolve as the characters mature. Three of the characters are in
similar forms and one is different. The story explores the
relationships between the matching group of characters and the
other one.
The wordless plot line
is ambiguous and sensual, open to interpretation but
strongly felt as the dancers rise and interact. They fly through
the huge space (you need to set your view distance to hundreds of
meters), soaring and swirling, meeting, separating, and coming
down to the audience to engulf the seating area with effects from
their costumes.
As with opera, ballet,
and other multimedia performance genres, the costumes change as
transformative elements in the drama, visually carrying the
metaphor of the plot. The switch from evolving forms to a set of
entirely different appearance occurs during a return to the pods,
following a violent episode in which the matching group attacks
the isolated one, who falls from the sky. The pods close on the
dancers and open to reveal the new looks. This scene is evocative
of rebirth, of the chrysalis, and of spiritual awakening.
CONTINUED...
