Jess Curtis and Maria Scaroni in The Symmetry Project—Study #14 – re:Presentation. Photo by Sven Hagolani.
We’ve been here before, but this time, it looks a bit different. Last March, the dancer-choreographer Jess Curtis, who divides his year between San Francisco and Berlin, offered what he called Symmetry Study #7 on a double-bill with a duet for an abled and a disabled dancer. The latter wasn’t noteworthy but Curtis’ duet with the Italian performer Maria Francesca Scaroni proved an underground hit for CounterPULSE performance space and, with little electioneering, ended up on several Best of the Year lists (including this one).
Curtis is clearly one artist who would rather rest on his haunches rather than his laurels, So, Thursday (March 19) at the same venue, to open his annual residency, he launched the latest version of what we saw last year and it continues through March 29. The study now stands alone on the program, which runs an unbroken 50 minutes; given the muted intensity, no one should feel short-changed. The work is what the title implies: an attempt to find the symmetries in the unclad body in a multiplicity of sculptural positions. What was compelling about the material in its earlier guise remains. The emendations, although not completely convincing, do add a thoughtful element to the piece.
Again, Curtis, with bristling white hair, and Scaroni, a gamine despite herself, recline on the floor and slowly peel off furry cloaks to reveal their naked forms. He makes anguished gestures. She seems enveloped in an aura of calm. They ooze their way across the floor; there are no right angles in this piece. When the duo meet, their flesh seems to melt into a single corpus, as limbs entwine and risky balances emerge. She, for example, will sit on his shoulders and balance on his thighs. But the movement always looks silky and rounded. The pacing suggests a lava flow. They tumble and slip between their partner’s legs. As often as sexual organs meet, the study seems to defuse the erotic element.
The formal element asserts itself in a middle section, in which the couple bend and bow and twist in counterpoint to video projections by Regina Teich. These flickering kaleidoscopic images seem to represent the couple in an electronic transformation, and the live dancers align themselves with the projections so that they seem to become an organic part of them.
Curtis and Scaroni have added an intriguing section to the piece. Both wander to the periphery and start to don formal wear. Here, they avert their gazes as they put on black tie and spangled dress. The suggestion that the mere presence of clothes has inspired modesty stays with you. Have we just exited the Garden of Eden? The epilogue offers the couple standing motionless, as we hear, successively, recordings of Schubert’s “Ave Maria” and Bobby Vinton’s “Blue Velvet.” Slowly, Scaroni, pulls up her dress, exposes her sexual organs and breaks out in tears. The moment leaves us puzzled. Is this a sentimental gesture? Or does Curtis suggest that it takes clothing to uncover our inner state? Does nudity, as much as it liberates physically, wrap us in an emotional shroud? Where does intimacy end and exhibitionism begin?
Each to his own interpretation, but any dance that raises such questions must be taken seriously. Symmetry Study #14 has acquired a live, improvised score by Klaus Janek, who is perched on an upper level throughout. Janek plucks on his electrified double bass and draws sounds from his laptop. The score is omnipresent, but never overbearing, the perfect complement. The lighting is by the expert David K.H. Elliott, much improved from last year.
The Symmetry Project—Study #14:re:Presentation continues Thursdays through Sundays through March 29 at 8 p.m. at CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission St., San Francisco.
Tickets: 1-800-838-3006, or www.brownpapertickets.com. *Post-show discussions follow the Friday performances.
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