Flight of Mind: Natural Patterns of Destruction

photo credit: Serena Davidson

photo credit: Serena Davidson

photo credit: Serena Davidson

photo credit: Serena Davidson
Posted by Scott McEachern
This is a wonderful piece that explores the effects of humans on the natural world. From the moment one sees the stage, an opening surrounded by local plants bucketed in dirt forming an artificial wetland, there is no question about the beauty of the production. The four dancers arrive on stage, one at a time, and dance to minimal music that is designed to be background, to mimic the sounds of nature (and later, the urban environment). The first third of the play is devoted to evoking the patterns of various animals: fish, birds, without the interference with humans. The dancers move in formation, touch each other lovingly, and settle into a rhythm of continuity. It is beautiful and lovely and leaves one aching for a better natural world. Because one knows that the second half of the play is a long meditation upon the destructiveness of humans. There is the interference with natural migratory patterns by the urban environment—the birds are forced to forage for food in the midst of a construction site, their formations are interrupted and often destroyed, they become scavengers and their community breaks down into squabbling and individualism. The dancers masterfully create (or un-create) the environment around them, as they move the natural landscape around them, signaling an interaction with nature that humans have long since given up in favor of an antagonistic relationship with birds, plants, the environment. The production highlights how far humans have gone to wreck havoc on the natural patterns.

photo credit: Serena Davidson

photo credit: Serena Davidson
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