Posted by Rob McMahon
Visually stunning, Rosanna Gamson’s Aura plays one last time at the Newmark Theater tonight at 9:00pm. The dance-theater piece is a surrealistic, post modern, carnival of eye candy. Based on the 1960’s gothic novella by Carlos Fuentes, the piece follows the story of Filipe, a young translator, hired by an aging widow to edit her husband’s memoirs. The widow’s house bizarrely warps time and space, and Filipe finds himself confused, lost and seeking escape through connection with the widow’s niece Aura, who in the end is merely a projection of the old woman.
It is amazing how well the companies convey this strange mood. The three characters are played at varying times by different dancers which allows for images of bilocation. The characters teleport about the stage. At times it is almost a magic show as a man goes under a sheet and comes out a woman. This is not even the half of it. There are images best left a surprise, best left to the eyes. Well worth the price of admission and with plenty of seats (if last nights house was an accurate indication), Aura will bend your conception of what can be done by bodies and fabric on a stage. Don’t miss it.
I went to the last show on the last night of the TBA, with the last punch on my Flex pass, almost as an afterthought. Somehow, this particular performance had conflicted with too many other things up to tonight, but when I realized that I could enjoy Sarah Rudinoff and Rosanna Gamson in the ease of one building, I had to of course go to both.
I wish I had gone the first night, only to tell everyone, again, that what I had seen was the most beautiful, most fulfilling, most skilled incorporation of mediums in dance that I had seen. I sat there the whole performance with a grin of amazement that they managed so many different aspects of performance, beyond dance even, that I wanted to be able to express more of my gratitude than my applause could give.
It was amazing. It was enjoyable in every regard. It was incredibly thought provoking, and completely moving. Thank you for providing our finale with such finesse.