2008_04_11 Ki: Mile Zero Dance

Gerry Morita and Mile Zero Dance can always be counted on to deliver something unique. Theresa Dextrase and Eryn Kelsey Annett Tempest add substance and movement, Eva Colmers add shadows and texture. If you are looking for an artistic, thought provoking evening, be sure to catch Ki.

Ki, by Mile Zero Dance, has been evolving for many months. A preview was shown at Mile Zero’s Studio series in February. It is always fun to watch a performance evolve. Ki opened last night at the Arts Barns. It is clearly a work of many people – with sound, lighting, dance and shadows created by projection – combining to create a thought provoking piece.

I was surprised at the number of ideas and feelings that came to me as I watched the performance. Ki is Japanese for ‘tree’. I found myself watching trees evolve, grow, wave and flow. They became tools, toys, and lastly a shelter. Eva Colmers reminds me that in art, different people see different things. Ki is a discussion piece.

Ki is also huge. The set is large, often dwarfing the dancers. In some cases the shadow techniques increase the size of the performers. In other sections, the performance shrinks to a small, private part of the set.
The interplay of shadows and dancers creates some very interesting situations of postural echo. A dancer behind the screen casts a shadow, which becomes part of the scene where a another dancer is in front of the screen. Projection images add to the texture.

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