Pam Vail makes me cry. True to form, she didn’t have any trouble eliciting emotion during a performance with her improvisational dance company, The Architects, on June 22, a Friday.
The Architects – photo by Stephen Aubuchon
To be fair, I can’t say that it was all Pam’s doing as the company also includes Katherine Ferrier, Lisa Gonzales, and Jennifer Kayle. Musician Vicki Brown and lighting designer Kathy Couch were also on the scene and had their own parts to play in what was a profound and touching display of dance, universal in theme.
They searched, they laughed, they fell down (“This is what I do best right now.”), they comforted each other, they abused each other, they were annoyed, they expressed alienation, they reconciled, they were silly. They were more. The performance was no less than a 40-minute window into the human experience. And sometimes the view hurt.
How did they do it? What made this performance so special?
They did it by starting over. When the house lights came up, everything started right then and kept starting right then. Indeed, with no real plan, how could it not?
They did it by being there. There was a sincere sense that the four company members (and the musician and lighting designer) were breathing the same air I was. We were all there together.
They did it by being awesome – awesome at moving their bodies. The beauty, grace and absolute coolness with which some people can move (alone or with others) is one of the best things ever.
They did it by taking off masks. There was full-on emotion being expressed during the performance and that only happens if the artist can melt the mask, be vulnerable and let it out.
They did it by finding flow. Like all humans, there were times when they were searching, but they found it. They felt the room and the Hymn (or whatever) and they moved with it. They disappeared and something else took the space.
The Architects found the place where magic happens. Outside of this place, all you have are fancy turns and movements I can’t do. All you have is a guy on stage with a guitar. All you have is paint on canvas. They transcended all of that one night in June and spend most of their time in the place of art, in the place that all creatives aspire to be, in the place that draws down the tears.
