I started writing this blog in earnest in the summer 2009. One of the first events I wrote about was the Frenetic Fringe Festival. Frenetic was a funky theater and dance studio complex on Navigation. The Fringe festival was a festival of short theatrical works in a variety of of genres, including dance. Now I was an utter dance novice when I saw this. I have tried to remember any other dance performances I went to before then, and all I can recall is seeing The Nutcracker. Among the dance performances were three choreographed by Toni Leago Valle: “Silent Victim","Interview for a Date/I Take My Dress Off", and “I Am Mother.” I was astonished by them—they were my favorite performances at the Frenetic Fringe Festival that year. Here’s what I wrote about “I Am Mother” when I saw it.
The dancer was Valle.
Her skin was covered with white, pasty makeup except for her eyes, which were kind of a red racoon mask.
The dance was done seated, under a soft, dim red spotlight.
Weirdly enough, I was reminded of the installation by Carlos Runcie-Tanaka called "Tiempo Detenido/No Olvidar." The atmosphere was similar.
Her movements were constrained by her seated posture.
But the effect was nonetheless electrifying.
Why I wrote it in bullet points, I can’t remember. I was conscious then of not having the vocabulary to describe what I had just seen. I still don’t really have the vocabulary. How do people talk about dance?
Tonight I saw Valle perform “I Am Mother” again. Everything I wrote above is still true, although the comparison to the Carlos Runcie-Tanaka exhibit really doesn’t apply. (I wonder if anyone reading this had seen it.) Her movements weren’t constrained; they were jerky and a little robotic. Not that the performance was robotic—it felt simultaneously ecstatic and controlled.
This was a small part of a bigger performance by 6 Degrees called Score. Score is a celebration of 20 years of 6 Degrees—a kind of greatest hits album. According to their website, “I Am Mother” premiered in 2004 two weeks after Valle gave birth. The rest of Score was very entertaining, but because I had seen Valle do “I Am Mother” before, it was interesting for me to compare tonight’s show to what I could remember of her earlier performance.
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Hi Robert,
Thank you for attending the concert and for this lovely review! -Toni Valle