Review: Michele Brangwen Dance & Music Ensemble’s “Faces of Sun and Wind” at the MATCH, Houston

Concerns about renewable energy resources and performative art are not usual bedfellows, but in Faces of Sun and Wind, the two make for a natural coupling. In the work, the Michele Brangwen Dance & Music Ensemble perform loosely choreographed and improvised dance while interacting with the bodies of accompanying musicians, instilling a unique blend of interactive creation between instrumentalist and dancer. The fresh take on interpretive performance works well to impress in the audience notions of springtime and renewal — an optimistic lens that abstractly inspires and entertains.

The small ensemble, consisting of four dancers and four instrumentalists dressed in brightly colored, yet casual attire, help to produce a sense of awakening, rather than formality. The springtime-inspired, colorful short sleeved shirts and black slacks brought to my mind chorus dancers in The Big Lebowski, an unexpected and welcome association. The tone of the compositions matches in that the swirling and free movements are incorporated deftly with the instrumentalists, a tenor sax, trumpet, double bass, and small drum kit. The first two free roam in and about the dancers, while the double bass and kit drums remain stationary, dancers congealing and dispersing in situ about them, all on the small and conservatively lit stage. Indeed, the faces of the dancers and instrumentalists seem to be drenched in a warm glow of performance, harkening a late summer day in one’s idyllic memory of adolescence. 

There is a plurality of contribution present in the performance. A conscious decision, no doubt, to better personify the core concept — a celebration and hope and optimism going forward in a world of dwindling finite resources and weary of unforeseen consequences. If it were to have been a film, think Robert Altman for the director.

Prior to the beginning of the performance, recognition was given of the indigenous ancestors who previously occupied Houston and the region. I appreciated this reference as being in the same vein as basing the work itself on renewable energy methods — a deep dive in looking at our collective past with hopes of understanding a workable relationship to our futures. This led into a call and response consisting of Sam Knight, the drummer of immeasurable talent, asking loudly and with purpose, “When?,” and the rest of the players claiming, “Now!!” — the interplay infectious. Trumpeter Tim Hagans and saxophonist Jon Irabagon proceed to improvise within a bosanova-ish backbeat. The dancers touch and caress the players, who in turn react in fluid interpretations of the sounds of spring and renewal. A sense of reverence and celebration infuses the performance, and something childlike and pure is translated through the interactions of dancers/performers.

To take the performance in a literal stance, the titular wind and sun represent a wholesale approach to energy consumption, which is limitless and seemingly benign in the face of problematic fossil fuel addiction. We know this and yet are mired in the current system whose stranglehold on the world remains. I thought about this as Tom Helton worked his magic on the double bass. Helton’s playing is feline-like, all motion graceful, yet loaded with attention to its context that is preternatural, emanating from a lifetime of experience expressing through the instrument. Hagans and Irabagon are both masters of their horns. Both players express fluid phrases and riffs while swirling around with the dancers in a phantasm of spring-like prancing. Knight’s presence is undeniable, his parsed-down drum kit expressing far more than it should be able to. 

Given the seriousness of our planet’s plight concerning the relationship between fossil fuel consumption and climate change, the performance could have easily slipped into a didactic stance. It is far easier to portray a Mad Max scenario, our easily manipulated imaginations held captive by impending doom and daily survival in a wasteland of decadent consumption. However, the Michele Brangwen Dance & Music Ensemble commanded the stage with grace and liveliness that prevented the performance from ever becoming stale or preachy. The choreographed elements of both the dance and score set up all players with welcomed improvised passages that only grew in intensity as the performance proceeded. This gumbo-like attitude, one that is inclusive and celebratory of all the ingredients, inspired the audience to contemplate their role in energy consumption with a sense of possibility and hope, rather than focusing on the doom and gloom consequences of fossil fuels we all know too well. 

 

The Michele Brangwen Dance & Music Ensemble performed Faces of Sun and Wind on March 9 and 10 at the Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston (MATCH).