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| | Carlotta
Sagna
 'A'
by Jenai
Cutcher
October 3, 2003 --
The Kitchen, New York, NY
Like any performer, dancers express
deep aspects of themselves and inhabit a risky state of vulnerability
every time they step in front of an audience. Choreographer and director
Carlotta Sagna, along with fellow dancers Lisa Gunstone and Antoine Effroy,
actually do it twiceover; they are performers baring their souls playing
performers baring their souls. In “A,” the evening-length work in which
Gunstone and Effroy play the “performers” and Sagna the “director,” the
trio dance, converse, deliver monologues, observe, change costumes, describe
the non-existent lighting changes, and more. Some might refer to these
activities as acting, but the word does not apply here-- they were too
comfortable.
Perhaps much of the material was rooted in reality, perhaps not. But it
was so unpretentious-- so un-“performance”-- for all I knew or cared,
it was the truth. It was in that moment, anyway, because it was universal
and accessible to all. Although Lisa and Antoine deal specifically with
performance anxiety, the need for attention, and the desire to be liked
by the audience, their root is the common struggle for self-expression
that everyone experiences.
Lisa relates an intense tale of miscommunication, incorporating more and
more upper body gestures until it’s the movement that shouts as her voice
subsides. Carlotta and Antoine shower her profusely with praise, gushing
over her tremendous talent.
The beautifully seamless blend of text and movement in this initial segment
is lost somewhere in the middle of the piece. Scenes remain equally captivating
and exhibitive of the performers’ ranges but become too predictably delineated
and settle into a formula of speaking, then dancing, then speaking, then
dancing.
Maybe it’s this pattern that makes the “Summertime” scene all the more
poignant. Antoine stands in the bare space, completely present, open,
vulnerable. Moments earlier, Lisa had done the same, beseeching someone
to please, just talk to her. Antoine trumps this request with “Would anyone
like to marry me?” His calm, sweetly boyish rationale makes you want to
consider it. He sustains this demeanor even as Lisa joins him, intermittently
crying and clinging to him. He begins humming “Summertime,” eyes still
twinkling at the audience, patiently accommodating Lisa’s sobs and awkward
positions. He carries her through space as she carries him through the
tune, feeding him the words between fits of tears.
With their ease in transitions and comfort with each other and themselves,
these performers create an overall tone to the piece that is equivalent
to Yvonne Rainer’s pedestrian movement. The influence of Trio A on this
piece is observed, but not entirely understood. What is recognizable in
both choreographers, however, is an earnest quest for the absolute truth
of the matter through the mediums particular to their own sensibilities.
Carlotta Sagna’s capacity to find it and present it effectively is a promising
element in a post-post-modern dance world still trying to discover its
own truths.
Edited by Lori Ibay
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