Performance Garage presents Nora Gibson Contemporary Ballet's 'HUMAN'

HUMAN explores artificial intelligence and technology’s complication of objectivity and otherness. It is a posthuman dance that uses the language of classical ballet to imagine new vistas, drawing on the strengths of its dancers, choreography, score, and staging.

This performance is the product of the Performance Garage’s first residency program. Jeanne Ruddy, who has owned and operated the dance hub on Brandywine Street since 2000, explained before the show that the first Dr. RJ Wallner DanceVisions Residency provided NGCB with resources, including rehearsal and performance space and technical and marketing support. This year’s award honored Gibson’s blending of choreography, lighting, and sound to generate immersive dance experiences.

Android romance

These features were integral to HUMAN, in which music, video projection, and creative use of space and movement suggested interactions between humans and AI (artificial intelligence) in environments natural and synthetic, physical and virtual. NGCB describes the dance as an “anti-story” about an AI being moving through space and time. It emphasized the “anti,” resembling a series of images and vignettes that were evocative despite lacking a clear plot.

The piece began with abstract video projections created by Gibson and ambient sound composed by Michael McDermott, also known as Mikronesia. Four dancers surrounded a prone woman, Hallie Lahm, watching her. Marria Cosentino-Chapin rose, while Brian Cordova, Katharine Nace, and Sean Thomas Boyt rolled onto their backs and moved their arms in slow, synchronous movements. Meanwhile, Cosentino-Chapin danced alone en pointe. Somehow, her sous-sus and elegant arm extensions seemed to control the other dancers.

All but Lahm exited and she rose, donning a shirt and pants over her leotard and shorts. Lahm seemed to be HUMAN’s AI, and the act of dressing recalled an android booting up and mimicking human protocol. Yet HUMAN resisted clear delineations between human and AI, instead raising questions about what is "natural" and why.

I saw this in Gibson’s pairing of dancers in male-female, female-female, and genderqueer combinations. The dress worn by Boyt, one of two male-presenting dancers, undermined gender norms and rendered indistinct the identity of his character and the pairs in which he danced.

These duets and Gibson’s use of the Performance Garage’s space were the standout parts of HUMAN. All the dancers showed impressive strength and technique. Not only did they move through the five arabesques as well as chaines and piqué turns, but they also repeatedly changed levels with grace and ease. Boyt especially made getting onto and off of the floor become a flowing part of the dance, while Cosentino-Chapin, a member of Pennsylvania Ballet’s corps, infused complex movements with seemingly effortless grace.

Blurring lines

Great moments occurred when Gibson created duets for these talented dancers, particularly Cordova. He performed gorgeous balances with Cosentino-Chapin and technically demanding lifts with Lahm. In one striking scene, Cordova lifted and turned Lahm, whose lower half resembled a butterfly with her feet together and knees apart. Then he set her astride his thigh, where she balanced momentarily.

Gibson staged movement in front of the stage and on either side, integrating these areas into the performance. For instance, a repeated vignette included several dancers standing in the wings and moving their arms in a slow port de bras. Spotlights shined to indicate this movement was part of the performance.

It blurred spatial boundaries, challenging expectations of “onstage” and “offstage” while bringing the dance closer to its audience. Mikronesia’s original music created an aural experience of liminality, alternately resembling mechanical sounds and the human voice. Ultimately, Gibson’s creative staging served HUMAN’s theme of the tensions between natural and unnatural, human and artificial.

HUMAN did not always succeed in realizing this vision. At times, the video projected onscreen behind the dancers made it hard to see the dancing. While the dress Boyt wore was thought-provoking, other dancers’ costumes appeared unrelated to their roles and the dance’s themes. And Cordova seemed underutilized until the final sections, in which he danced those standout duets.

Nevertheless, HUMAN effectively considers future sensibilities using the traditional idioms of classical ballet. It piques curiosity and will leave you eager to see more from NGCB and the forward-thinking vision of the Performance Garage’s DanceVisions Residency.