reprinted from NeoNumaArts: http://neonumaarts.blogspot.com/
Friday, February 06, 2009
tetris by Toni Leago Valle
By Neil Ellis Orts
When I first moved to Houston 5 years ago, one of the first artists to whom I was drawn was Toni Leago Valle. I met her in Fieldwork, where she was showing work that incorporated storytelling and dance---which was exactly where my head was at the time. I was especially drawn, however, by her choreography. She uses an interesting and often surprising movement vocabulary, especially when partnering with another dancer. There are images from the first piece I saw of hers in Fieldwork that remain in my head, simply because the partnering work surprised and delighted me.
In the intervening years, Toni has become a friend and sometimes collaborator. She hired me as director for her last evening-length work, Cracked (2006), during the last two weeks of rehearsal of which I had the poor judgment to have a "heart event" and have since felt guilty that I wasn't there to play more in the final moments. (Oh, but wait, this isn't about me, is it?) She also worked with me on a short movement piece I made for a Fieldwork showcase (along with another friend and sometimes collaborator, Misha Penton of the new Divergence Vocal Theater).
So, last night, I went to see Toni's latest full-evening show, tetris. I'd seen a lot of photos from the show, had her bring a snippet of it to the neoNuma Arts Holiday Salon back in December, and even wrote a preview piece about it for OutSmart's January issue. So going in, I knew this piece was about a young woman's fractured identity and all the dancers around her were the many voices inside her head---from internal critic to inner child.
What I saw last night was a surprise.
First of all, this is the first piece I've ever seen from Toni that didn't use text. All the storytelling was accomplished via the movement, music, and news and pop culture video and audio clips from the 1980s. Not relying on text makes for more ambigous storytelling, but that's not a bad thing. In fact, that's the most appealing thing about this show. Back when I was helping Toni on Cracked, one of the things I remember saying to her more than once was, "cut this bit of text---you don't have to explain everything, we get it---or if we don't it's still there and it's not your fault that we don't." By doing away with the text---and I'm speaking of this piece in the context of Toni's larger body of work---it feels like Toni took a big personal risk, to let the storytelling happen or not, according to the audience's ability to look at dance.
But second, and perhaps most important, it works marvelously. Even when I wasn't clear on every dancer's role in the main character's head, I was enthralled. Even when I wasn't syncing up the video to the movement, it was never dull and never looked thrown together. If I wasn't "getting" every moment, I was getting that there was purpose and thought to every moment.
The evening itself is a bit of roller coaster, starting as it does with video of the Challenger crew boarding the shuttle to the tune of Peter Schilling's "Major Tom." I hadn't seen that video in years and it was a sucker punch to the gut, especially how Toni reminded us of how often we saw that explosion, over and over, with stops to point out where it begain and diagrams that gave us nearly second by second explanations of it.
But it's not all doom, as Toni's sense of humor is evident throughout the evening. A highlight of that being a duet wherein each dancer is trying harder than the other to pose for the flashing cameras about them, occasionally pointing out someone out in the audience and motioning "call me." Very funny stuff, expertly played by the dancers.
And speaking of the dancers, I want to mention two in particular. Priscilla Nathan-Murphy was also in Toni's Cracked. She was mesmerizing then and she's no less so now. She is able to fill the theater with her presence and deliver the goods on her movement ability. From her toes to her fingertips, everything is articulated and everything moves with purpose. I have no idea if she thinks so, but when I watch Priscilla dance, I feel like she's aware of every movement she makes. Some dancers get by with occasional tossing off of unfocused movement. Priscilla never lets you see those, if she makes them at all.
Also of amazing stage presence was a dancer making her contemporary dance debut, 9-year-old Bianca Torres-Aponte. I've never seen a child on stage be so focused and in the moment of the performance. When she first appeared, I was drawn by her presence, but then when she actually danced, I realized here is a little girl with no little ability. I half expected her to do mostly pedestrian movement, but Toni gave her some more complex choreography and it was lovely. At her age, any number of interests might come her way before she makes grown-up decicions about her life, but if she's able to maintain the focus she displayed last night, there's little doubt she'll grow up to do well, whatever she does.
Go to Toni's website and see if you can still score tickets for her last two performances. tetris is an evening in the theater well spent.
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Toni Leago Valle’s Tetris Excavates, Resonates, and Captivates
by Nichelle Strzepek
February 2, 2009...3:25 pm
reprinted from Nichelle Strzepek website:
From the outset, Toni Leago Valle’s latest work is an interactive experience. Upon taking their seats, the audience may feel a box of popcorn is order as they are treated to movie clips (circa the 1980s) and trivia regarding the production’s ensemble of Houston dancers. It is a device that simultaneously puts viewers at ease and prepares them for their reciprocal role in the performance to come.
Rooted in the psychological theories and concepts of Voice Dialogue, Valle’s first maneuver is to introduce the audience to the Operating Ego. No mincing words here, our subject literally breaks the fourth wall of traditional theater (something that occurs often throughout the work), steps into the audience, shakes some hands, and introduces herself… well, she tries anyway. Unable to complete her sentence and offer her name, it seems our heroine is a bit unsure of who she really is. It is no mystery that the audience is being invited to come along as she discovers her many “selves.”
Creating this cast of inner beings has surely been a personal exploration for Valle. In fact, she embodies The Inner Critic in her own production, first appearing in a dramatic duet with The Operating Ego, played by the uniquely stunning Mechelle Flemming. Viewers are given a taste for each personality as they are introduced and interact with one another. Other than given titles such as The People Pleaser, The Special/Perfect Self, and The Dependent Child, the audience is given few clues as to why the characters act or react the way they do. However, the information is unessential during the parade of personalities, engaging performances, clever and often humorous choreography, and heavy dose of bittersweet nostalgia, which transports and sustains the audience through an enjoyable evening.
There are many moments in the production that deserve note. The entire cast are well-suited for their roles and they all fit together like the gigantic blocks (shaped like tetrominoes in the popular video game, Tetris) that are skillfully utilized as set, platform, shelter, and cage throughout the piece. Catalina Molnari is a stand-out in an athletic and emotional adagio atop a set of these blocks. Jennifer Magill and Joe Modlin ham it up deliciously during an entertaining duet, Corian Ellisor is both dapper and disquieting in his role as The Absence of Love Self, and in a touching duet with Mechelle Flemming which includes sequences of spell-binding gesture, young Bianca Torres-Aponte, who portrays The Vulnerable Child, is simply mesmerizing.
Tetris is a testament to Valle’s ability to create interesting characters and creatively unfold motifs, both lighthearted and solemn, one chapter at a time. In addition to presenting one woman’s journey of self-discovery, she takes the audience through events and experiences of the 1980’s and early 90’s with perhaps less rapid-fire speed than the Billy Joel hit “We Didn’t Start the Fire” (which actually chronicles about 40 years of America’s modern past) but not without a similar pop sensibility. With selections from Violent Femmes, The Cure, The Smiths, and even Donna Summer, the score plays like the soundtrack of someone’s life, if not specifically Valle’s. Gen-Xers will find it hard to resist the small jolt of joy they receive when a fragment of Reality Bites appears on the backdrop during Act II, despite the clip’s weighty subject matter. In fact, although the overall effect is often uplifting, many of the themes in Tetris are far from feel-good fare. Valle asks patrons to once again watch the Challenger spaceship explode as Peter Schilling’s Major Tom plays and the dancers mournfully scan the skies. She encourages a re-visitation of such gloomy events as the deaths of John Lennon and Princess Diana, the OJ Simpson trial, the AIDS epidemic, and the Rodney King beating. Like Prego, “It’s in there.”
In mining her own history, Valle has produced a work that resonates and captivates. Even those too young (or too old) to appreciate what it was like to come of age during the indulgent and somewhat narcissistic era of the 1980’s will be charmed by this romp down Memory Lane. In fact, the commonalities rather than the divisions between generations and between individuals can be found in the tale Valle tells through Tetris. She has invited the audience to join her (and/or “Alex,” The Operating Ego) as she excavates her own experiences but what she uncovers, to the delight of most spectators, is a story shared by all.
Remaining performances of Tetris, playing at Barnevelder Movement Arts Complex in Houston, TX are at 8pm February 5-7. For more information or to purchase tickets visit www.tonileagovalle.com .
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Flash Responses by Karen Stokes
Dance in Houston, January 2009
reprinted from Dance Source Houston
to view flash response in its entirety, visit: http://houstondance.org/DSH/Site_Page.cfm?PageID=299&HeaderID=70
Flash Reponse #2: “Tetris” by Toni Valle:
If putting the pieces of a psychological profile together intrigues you, you should go see “Tetris” by Toni Valle this week at Barnevelder. If large-scale
theatrical dance is your thing, see “Tetris” this week. If you are a follower of the considerable talents of our modern dance community, buy a ticket to “Tetris”. If you like story
telling combined with dance – “Tetris” might be of interest. If you have a thing for symbolism, “Tetris” gives you plenty of that. If you like the pop culture of the 80’s, I really think you
might want to “pop” over to see “Tetris”.
Toni Valle is not scared of combining huge concepts, big sets, a sizeable cast, and one small child on stage. She likes to think epic, putting to use her own personal experiences to expound
upon her view of life. Toni has created three evening lengths in her relatively young career as a choreographer. The first “It’s All Relative” reflected on experiences with family. The
second, “Cracked” reflected on experiences as a young woman. I suspect “Tetris” is a continuation of the autobiographical themes, as Toni investigates psychological pieces that make up the whole of a
woman.
On the visual side, large pieces of a 3-D block-puzzle painted with pale squiggles (designed by Tom Boyd of the Houston Ballet) dominate the stage, seemingly symbolizing the parts of the woman (one
suspects the autobiographical material here) soon to be danced by a cast of Houston favorites, including long-time Houston dancer and choreographer Priscilla Nathan-Murphy. (I’ll say no more
about Houston favorites, as several dancers come from my own company or I have worked with or I have trained at U of H . . . I admit prejudices here . . . did I mention Toni was my student at
one time?)
Led by Mechelle Flemming as “The Operating Ego,” the cast dances with strength and vigor. The movement is big and peppered with repeating motifs. Swooping “back attitude” turns and slicing leg flings
appear throughout the evening, with only passing attention to smaller detailed movement possibilities. These broad-brush strokes serve to stir up the stage, and help the evening to flow at an
enjoyable pace, especially in Act I. A surprise is revealed at the end of Act I when the face of Flemming magically appears on the puzzle pieces, now re-arranged by the dancers in the shape of
a box. The symbolism is clear: these pieces represent aspects of the woman; these pieces are parts of self.
It seems that each of the dancers, including an enchanting performance in Act 2 by budding child dancer Bianca Torres-Aponte, tell the story of a single person of many selves. It is not “Sybil” like,
there are no truly psychotic aspects to this person, but it does seem to delve into the concept that a single human houses many selves. While the psychological trajectory was at times (like the
psyche itself) difficult to follow, Valle made the journey easy with entertaining snippets of video footage from old 80’s favorites such as “Pretty in Pink” and “Ghostbusters,” recorded historical
narratives of the same time period, a range of pop music, and the constantly changing stage space. Valle didn’t hesitate to “go there” in the first Act by including a tongue-in-cheek 80’s dance
competition couple (Jenny Magill and Joe Modlin), giving the audience a full-on satire of ballroom from said period. As always, Jeremy Choate gives plenty of bangs for your buck with his lighting
design, complete with his favored “hazer” look – a diffused mist that softly filters light. If you haven’t gone yet, you should head on over to Barnevelder to check it out. “Tetris” is a
chance to see one of our best up and coming Houston choreographers developing her vision of dance-theater. And oh, by the way, the upgrades continue at Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex. The
latest terrific improvement is a new seating system, with comfortable chairs and great sight lines. ã Karen Stokes 2009
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TETRIS - Toni Leago Valle
reprinted from Dance Source Houston
http://houstondance.org/DSH/Site_Page.cfm?PageID=295&HeaderID=70
by John DeMers
1/29/09
Barnevelder Theatre
In classical dance, great storytelling is often an excuse for dancing well. In many modern works, and especially those of Houston choreographer Toni Leago Valle, dancing well is an excuse for great
storytelling.
While Valle’s creations are more than physical enough to qualify as dance, they tend to involve others elements borrowed from pop culture – and, in the case of her earlier, wildly confessional
“CRACKED,” a live vocal narration by her and about her. More than a dancer, then, Valle is a storyteller. And the story she seems most committed to telling is either her own journey or, if forced to
be more general, the journey of a young woman to maturity in a time and place much like her own.
Tetris, named after the popular ‘80s computer game, seems to be about a woman’s efforts to integrate, to make peace among and make sense of the many often-warring pieces that define her. The story’s
trajectory is, in one sense, very simple: a woman comes out at the beginning and wanders blankly through the audience, her only self-expression the unfinished sentence, “My name is…” Almost two hours
later, she does much the same thing, only this time smiling and saying confidently “My name is Alex.” OK, so that’s the story. And a fine one to tell it is. After that, however, the only question
concerns how well it gets told.
Throughout the evening, and especially during the first act, Valle’s brand of original, physical and bold movement keeps her show entertaining. In fact, she piles considerable amounts of humor into
Act I, something we wish she’d remembered for the slower Act II. A whimsical underpinning is supplied by ‘80s hits (Violent Femmes, The Cure, Donna Summer, etc.) pasted together as a score of sorts,
and even more so by clips from iconic ‘80s movies like Terminator, Ghostbusters and Pretty in Pink.
These happy, for-some nostalgic notes seem perfectly balanced with the video and sounds bites from darker history, ranging from the Challenger disaster to the murder of John Lennon to the death of
Princess Diana to the growth of the AIDS epidemic. At times, the whole thing resembles Edward R. Murrow’s great series about the Depression and World War II, “I Can Hear It now” – which, naturally,
became “I Can See It Now” just in time for Murrow’s big switch to television.
Valle appears as a dancer in her own show, spending the evening in a kind of sundress and identifying herself in the program as The Inner Critic. This, like most of the other characters described in
the program (The Gatekeeper, The Jungle Energy Self, The Non-Special/Imperfect Self) offer few clear clues to what the heck is going on. Indeed, a dance probably needs to tell the story on its own
anyway, without recourse to liner notes. Thus, the evening’s highlights tend to be things that speak through humor, accessibility or their sheer physicality.
In the memorable category, we’d certainly have to mention the witty, crowd-pleaser of a duet performed by Joe Modlin and Jennifer Magill, Lindsey McGill’s Martha Graham-like rant in a red raincoat
and the agonized solo set to R. Kelly’s “Turn Back the Hands of Time,” danced with Cirque du Soleil athleticism by Catalina Molnari. Finally, Mechelle Flemming provided an impressive presence as the
heroine of the piece, though Valle’s calling her The Operating Ego in the program is indicative of what keeps Tetris from moving us at the level of emotion. Operating Egos can’t really laugh or cry
or bleed. Those are things that people do.
The latest Valle evening was well-received by a decent-sized audience in the new, improved Barnevelder Theatre, all a reflection of the support so many dancers and dance groups in Houston express for
one another. In the end, feel-good sentimentality may not have been the order of the day. But any well-told story of a woman's struggle to find and understand herself, to hear her own voice and, yes,
to speak her own name, needs to be something deeply emotional. In its finest moments, Tetris either is or aspires to be precisely that. – John DeMers
John DeMers has been writing about the arts and a lot of other things for more than 30 years. Today he is the host of the Houston food and wine radio show Delicious Mischief, heard on Radio News 740
KTRH Saturdays at 11 a.m. He is the author of 37 published books, not counting his upcoming mystery novel MARFA SHADOWS.
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Houston Modern Luxury Magazine January 2009
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Outsmart Magazine January 2009
HOT TICKET
putting it together
Toni Leago Valle's ‘tetris'
Being a gay dancer has its pros and cons,” says Corian Ellisor. “The field of people I come in contact with are more willing to come out and support dance. With that being said, many people ask what I do, and I am always faced with the stigma of dancing on a poll.”
In tetris, the new dance theater piece created by Toni Leago Valle, UH dance faculty member and Dance Source Houston project manager, people are dancing on blocks—huge, moveable puzzle pieces created by Houston Ballet designer, Tom Boyd. Throughout the evening-length work, a cast of 12 tries to put together all the pieces of a woman's life, using many experiences from Valle's coming of age in the 1980s. “We entered the dating scene after the ‘free love' mind-set, so bisexuality and experimentation was popular during my teens,” Valle says. “I had many gay friends and even tried a few bisexual relationships. Then—wham!—we were hit with AIDS . . . all of a sudden, intimacy was banned and everyone withdrew from one another.” With a soundtrack from the '80s and '90s, tetris explores the loneliness and fragmentation these mixed messages had on a generation.
Ellisor is only one of four gay dancers in the cast of 12, the others being Brittany Wallis, Joe Modlin, and Alex Abarca, none of whom dance on poles in this production.
“Definitely nothing wrong with that,” Ellisor adds. “I just don't do that.”
Tetris runs January 29, 30, February 5–7, 8pm, Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex, 2201 Preston. Learn more at tonileagovalle.com. — Neil Ellis Orts
PHOTO CAPTION
Corian Ellisor (supine) is one of four out dancers (from a total of 12) who are part of a new theater dance piece, tetris. The other three are (l–r) Joe Modlin, Alex Abarca, and Brittany
Wallis.
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