Dec 16, 2022
Nava Dance Theatre Builds Together
Chloë Zimberg
Six musicians onstage and a heartfelt welcome that acknowledged ancestors past and present opened Nava Dance Theatre’s “Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies.”
Throughout the two-act performance, Artistic Director Nadhi Thekkek was joined by a cast of seven dancers who flowed between tightly composed group pieces with strong unison, a duet, and a number of solos. Thekkek paired exquisitely intricate Bharatanatyam movement with contemporary underpinnings and compositional structures.
Thekkek performed a solo that moved back and forth between two colorful pools of light on stage right and left. On one side she evoked maternal roles and beauty with gestures referencing children and applying makeup while she stood and played to the audience with flirtation, almost as if she were looking at us were we her mirror. She crossed the stage with tension. In a descent to the floor a power struggle manifested as her body appeared weighed down by external forces. She rose up in strength, showing us her muscles. Juxtaposing these sides of the feminine, she transitioned between them swiftly until we saw them blend, with the pools of light, into one central experience and performance.
The cast stood in a semi-circle and played the children’s game “Concentration,” that challenges participants to take turns through the circle stating an answer that responds to a named category while maintaining the group’s physical beat, clapping and snapping. The performers named different visa types for entry into the US, as well as rights for immigrants living in the states such as the ability to survive and thrive.
A motif was built throughout the work of dancers lifting heaving objects to build an invisible structure center stage. By the end, as one final dancer was seemingly overwhelmed by the weight of the task, her companions assisted her, building together the final monument.
“Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies” evoked the tensions and experiences of women and immigrants coming to the U.S. Nava Dance Theatre showed that together we are stronger, inclusive of the nuances and contradictions that folks are asked to hold in their bodies and experiences. Thekkek carried the piece with light and leadership, her cast delivering the same poise and integrity of performance that she infuses into her work.
