DESCENT: The Story of Venus and Andromeda

My experience of DESCENT is complicated and even now, a couple weeks removed from my viewing of the piece, I still don’t quite know what to think of it. 

I’ll start with some background information.  The basic idea of this performance is to tell a story, which by the way is based on writings by French sculptor Auguste Rodin about Venus and Andromeda, choreographed by Alice Sheppard.  One major difference between Mrs. Sheppard and her dance partner, Laurel Lawson, is that both use wheelchairs in their everyday lives.  This distinct difference between “normal” dance and DESCENT allows for a broader range of movement and expression since each dancer essentially has two ways to navigate the stage.  This is something that Alice Sheppard speaks about, how she doesn’t view her wheelchair or crunches as obstacles to overcome but instead as opportunities for more creative expression. 

Speaking of the stage, it is a work of art in itself, was designed by Sara Hendren along with Yevgeniya Zastavker from Olin College.  Standing at nearly six feet tall and covering a twenty-four by fifteen area.  With the front half of the stage having a small downward slope and the back half holding the long ramp, which is orientated parallel to the long axis of the stage. This incredible set design gives the performance the ability to exist in an alternate dimension, the one where the story takes place.  My favorite part of the show is the lighting though.  The lighting was beautifully choreographed to give emotion to the performance.  I also enjoyed how the setting was created by a projection on the back wall which changed throughout the performance.  For example, right before the end of the first part of the show the background showed the constellations associated with the beginning poses (the way that both characters started the show) before fading to black.  The lighting was found the happy medium, it was just impressive enough to keep my attention, but not to overpowering that I lost track of the performers in front of it.  The stage itself also acted as a mural for the lights to play with.  It had a supremely reflective surface which was very helpful in setting the scene as the dancers worked their way around it. 

I was able to follow the story, for the most part, up until the intermission.  After the performance resumed, I was lost.  For some reason I couldn’t grasp the emotion that the dancers were trying to portray, which might be partly because this was the point where Sheppard and Lawson started to showcase their more complicated maneuvers.  For me it felt almost forced at this point, as if Alison Sheppard was struck with the idea of including a maneuver where Lawson’s character is held above Sheppard’s character while both are fastened into their chairs, and did not let the choreography take the piece in a natural direction. 

Overall, I immensely enjoyed the first half of the performance and thought the idea was incredible at first.  However, I found that the second half of the show lacked the flow that the first half showed.  There was more rapid movement, less continuity between each emotion.

- Zachary Schaller