AUDIENCE RESPONSE

What the audience said about Disturbulance and Scent Of Mental Love:

The work is honest, powerful, evocative, raw and funny. There is an expectation that grown women somehow don't have passion or wildness or, if they do, shouldn't let anyone know about it
It's so much about performance timing and investigation which is just what interests me. You guys are out there dancing through blood and guts and love and death and facing down the devil. Makes me want to go out and bay at the moon.
David Parker

I loved your dances so much. I loved their odd, heretofore untold truths. And the brilliant way you use the tempo of events -- speed, slowness, and stillness -- and space as deeply expressive tools. Such
formal tools for such expressive ends! Scent Of Mental Love was playful, angsty, and sexy. Disturbulance was so moving. I completely went on the accumulating emotional journey without ever
worrying about why or what. Sex is all over both of the dances. Finally to see something so saturated in sex and desire and discontent from the psyche of a woman -- not generically feminine, but
idiosyncratic and personal in its particular multiplicity, diffusion and passion.
David Brick

Disturbulance was so powerful. It made me think of a beautiful painting in which someone pointed out to me a miniscule flaw. If they hadn't shown me that flaw, I probably would have never seen it, but now that I know it is there, it is all I can see. You magnified that flaw. You took away the innocence of looking at that painting with a naive eye. In some ways it makes it maddening that you can never look at the beautiful piece of artwork the same way you had for so long, and in another way it is like you know a secret that not everyone else can see. It's almost like that flaw became this giant elephant in the room that everyone is ignoring and pretending isn't there. It is amazing that as a choreographer, you can make the audience leave, not with the memories of the dance steps in their mind, but with the memories of all of these feelings and emotions that haunt them. That is a true gift, and I think that is what made Disturbulance so spectacular.
Amber Sloan

Disturbulance showed me things I've rarely seen in dance. It's merciless, yet insightful and deeply humane. The contortions that two people go through -- first to stay together, and then to separate...we've all been there. This dance haunted me long after the lights came up. Brilliant!
Steven Swartz

Your show was spectacular and Disturbulance took a toll on me. It packs such an emotional wallop for anyone who has ever been in a relationship. But it was not cliched, pretty, easy or filled with
resolutions. There is pain and it must wipe you out. It is an outstanding piece. Scent is gorgeous and I loved the staging with Rachelle. She truly becomes a performer, not only a musician and
therefore the piece is a trio for me. The dancers were truly invested in the movement and choreographic intent and they danced with their hearts.
Lisa Wheeler

In a way the experience was too intense to say anything right after the performance! Those two pieces really tear the inside out, when you see them, bringing the most hidden feelings from the most remote part of one's body to the surface. There is love...somewhere...There are so many images, moments, movements that I still can feel, touch, smell and relate to, about 8 weeks after seeing the performance. What does that say about a unique piece of art? Only the best, I guess!
Marcus Behrens

I came to see your show on opening night I was devastated. It was beautiful and moving and has haunted me ever since.
Nancy Ellis

I hope you know that this was strong work with a lot of psychological and emotional impact. A dancer friend told me that your piece reminded him that dance lives in memory. He was remembering your piece for a week after he saw it.
Frederick Brown

We both loved the show. It was truly transcendent and seeing the variations of Scent Of Mental Love with two gorgeous dancers performing your choreography and then you and Walter was wonderful.
I was really lost in Disturbulance and it was a deep journey into my own unconscious that produced the most blissful state. Having seen your process over a relatively short period of time I am so pleased to have witnessed your commitment to your Art and got to enjoy the development. The choice of music, first and second piece was primo! I think your new dancers really were great. Congratulations.
Bryan Thompson and Clain Depalma

Saw your show and I really enjoyed it. I was so glad to have gotten myself there. The movement invention was amazing and the sustained tone of the evening worked to leave indelible images for those of us in the audience. Perhaps you'll be able to visit the 4th grade classes sometime soon.
Catherine Gallant

Thank you so much, both for your magnificent performance and for your honest and generous conversation afterwards with the students. My gang from Tisch loved the entire evening, as did I. It was their first time at Dance Theater Workshop. I think they will return often, as a result of your artistic and personal offerings. Bravo.
Linda Tarnay

You are luminous, elegant and straight forward, unpretentious and so clear in your intent. I think it is really brave to do male/female duets. So often they are just stupid fake Hollywoodesque versions of superficial soda-pop relationships. But you managed to hit on real emotion and difficulty and reality and alienation. I loved how spare the work and the stage were – the use of the back wall, the Venetian blinds. I admired how you were able to find movement and integrate it into a non-linear narrative. And you manage humor yet still really dark. Great visual moments – Omagbitse shoved up high against the wall, listening and space giving to each other. The duets capture the odd, precarious and touching essence of relationships/life. Thanks for a beautiful and generous evening.
Vicki Shick

Your work is beautifully realized and inspiring. Painstakingly investigated and ultimately true. I am so grateful for the risks you are willing to take in sharing your vision. It shrinks me in my seat because your dances are chillingly recognizable as feelings and places we have been and have not shared with anyone. I love how the action of the bodies is constantly pitched against the space they inhabit. That the edges of your vocabulary shift way beyond predictability. Disturbulance for me was like fitting the power of the last Ice Age onto the head of a pin. There is so much experience in that piece that I have commiseration to (and a kind of battle wound celebration of…).
Emily Tschiffely

I just wanted to thank you for the work. I was thinking about it this morning after letting it marinate in my head overnight. All the juxtapositions, the humor and the terror, the inside and the outside are more real than ever for me.
Janet Wong

Disturbulance was a powerful punch to my gut. That final moment had me crying. I saw inside my own head, seasonal depression, recent jet-lag induced late night restlessness, neurotic post 9/11 fears. It was a rigorous, exhaustive examination and I’m happy to say I was upset by it. It worked. It conveyed. It impacted. Oh and Scent looked and sounded fantastic too!
Maura Donohue

Your dances take us on an adventure. Not a journey or a voyage. An adventure with no detours, no side-trips. You know exactly where you are going and you are taking us with you. You might have to scale a mountain, crags and all. We never know what to expect or what kind of thing you will do next.
Reggie Wilson