STATEof THEarts The Bryce Dance Company Moves Through the Aging Process B Y XI A N CHI A N G- WAREN
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he Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes “aging” as a “gradual change in an organism that leads to increased risk of weakness, disease and death,” a definition that accurately reflects cultural attitudes. But the 15 current members of the Burlington-based BRYCE DANCE COMPANY — whose ages range from early twenties to mid-sixties — beg to differ. To You, Around You, About You, a show about aging and caregiving, will have its penultimate performance this weekend at the SPOTLIGHT ON DANCE theater in South Burlington. When the curtain rises, founder and choreographer HEATHER BRYCE will appear onstage and recite that definition aloud. Then, in a movement piece that she admits has been “disturbing” to past audiences, her dancers will give physical and verbal form to the process of decay the dictionary definition implies. “That’s how it starts, and it’s real,” says Bryce, a professional dancer and
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to imbue her work with a social-change component. In that same vein, her next project will be an on-site performance in a Vermont town that was flooded during Tropical Storm Irene, exploring ideas of home, displacement and natural disaster. “We want to go into the community, dig up stories and then relate that to the movement as well, and really look at what it means to be displaced, what it means to experience disaster,” Bryce says. In planning the project that would become To You, Around You, About You,
Bryce conducted hours of interviews with patients in assisted-living facilities, as well as with their family members and caregivers. She and West conducted five dance workshops at several Burlingtonarea Cathedral Square independent living facilities between March and July 2013, and initially hoped that some of the patients could be incorporated into the piece. “I look at choreography and dance a little bit differently than most people,” Bryce says. “I’m interested in what people think about different topics; I’m interested in uncovering what’s really
A New Wing at the West Branch Gallery Embraces Landscape Painting B Y PA MEL A P O LST ON
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towe’s 13-year-old
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is expanding — again. It wasn’t that long ago that co-owners CHRIS CURTIS and TARI SWENSON created the cozy Upstairs Gallery in their high-ceilinged quarters just off the Mountain Road. Later this month, they’ll reveal the latest addition: a wing for landscape painting. Called, appropriately enough, “Landscape Traditions,” the 630-squarefoot area will open on March 22 with an exhibit of works by nine painters who are among the best in the genre: GARIN BAKER, STEPHANIE BUSH, JULIA JENSEN, SUSAN LYNN, GARY MILEK, RICHARD SNEARY, GABRIEL TEMPESTA, KATHLEEN KOLB and TAD SPURGEON.
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“Back Steps” by Kathleen Kolb
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teaching artist with an MFA from Goddard College, who volunteers at a hospice in her spare time. Bryce choreographed the piece with collaborator KAYLA WEST, a nurse practitioner. Their intimate knowledge of aging and dying led them to incorporate uncomfortably authentic details into the piece, such as the wordless noises that dementia patients can utter. “I think there’s this reaction, like, ‘Whoa, wait a minute, what are they doing here?’” Bryce says. But the piece evolves as the ensemble shifts the dance to reflect a more holistic interpretation of aging, which the
company developed during workshops. (Part of that new definition — “gradual change in an organism that leads to increased wisdom, awareness and perspective” — appears as text on a video screen.) The show’s other sections explore different words pertinent to the aging process, including “memory,” “hope,” “health,” “illness” and “transition.” The performance at Spotlight this weekend is the most recent incarnation of Bryce’s work. It’s been evolving since January 2013, when a close friend of hers passed away after a two-year struggle with brain cancer. “Over that time period, I just knew that I needed to do something with that experience, with what I was feeling,” she says. “For me it was really important to just do something with that, to open up dialogue.” Over a year, Bryce’s company has turned To You, Around You, About You into a poignant and unconventional show that explores aging far beyond the notion of physical deterioration. Spliced into larger ensemble dances are several intimate and gorgeously performed duets, in which pairs of dancers embody dependency, dignity and agency. A video piece and an original score by New Hampshire composer Jason Beaudreau add to the show without distracting from the dancers. Contemporary dance, Bryce believes, is a particularly apt medium through which to start a dialogue about aging, since typical depictions of the process are so hung up on physical depletion. And, perhaps unusually for a contemporary dance choreographer, Bryce strives
While the works vary in style and medium, they have one thing in common, aside from natural subject matter: “It’s very skilled, and very soulful,” said Curtis by phone from Stowe. “Some are very traditional scenes, but they’re rendered so beautifully,” he added. So why is a gallery known for its contemporary paintings and sculptures, um, branching into a genre as old as art itself? Two reasons, said Curtis. The first is sheer availability. “We get submissions coming in continually,” he said, including “a lot of wonderful art that doesn’t fit our contemporary gallery.” The second reason may sound