Loop, Lull, an Ever-changing State of Creation

        The title Loop, Lull is striking and intriguing, it so perfectly describes and explains the embodiment of these words through movement and atmosphere while still providing curiosity for the viewer. It is a statement, an exploration and intertwines the definitions of the words, “Loop,” and “Lull,” and how they are illustrated in this dance work. The show’s title explains the sound and movement cycles, as the dancers move through loops of movement and the sound moves through various atmospheric tracks. Company 605 presents this new work of dance at the Scotiabank Dance Centre where the audience is immersed into the performance space in a uncharacteristically warm, square space, with seating in a circular structure around the room. The heat and the established circularity of the room create a hypnotic, inclusive, intimate environment from which the performers emerge. Company 605 co-artistic directors Josh Martin and Lisa Gelley describe the space with the audience in this circular structure, “There is an obvious circular nature to a loop, which plays a role in our decision to place the piece in the round…,” (Curtis). Being set up in circular structure connects the loop to the space which influences other aspects of the performance. The definitions of title, Loop, Lull, are evident through the connection of the dancers and the space. 

Photo by David Cooper

The show includes five dancers, props, text, intricate lighting design, sound, and two people who appear to operate the sound and light via control boards. The two people operating the lighting and sound for the majority of the piece were the company’s co-artistic directors Gelley and Martin. The show length was about sixty minutes in which the dancers move through improvised structures to find set phrases while interacting with props, Martin, Gelley and each other through movement and words. The props used included two benches, two metal square frames built to carry the lighting and sound boards, the dancers personal water bottles and personal notebooks. These props and the lighting are used as a way to enhance the audience’s perspective of the movement and also to distort it at times. The room becomes a stage out of thin air, as you enter the space you take in the performance area at the level of a studio floor, the chairs around the room on two level raked seating, and the performers already trapped in their looped mannerisms. Having the performance space at the same level as the audience allows for an intimate setting, and allows you to see the audience as well as the performers. Being so close to the performers, where I was sitting I could touch them at some points, encapsulates the audience in your field of vision as well. Gelley and Martin describe placing the audience in the round, “…but one of the goals was also to create a space that felt like everyone was in the same room, within view of each other, and not distant or removed from the experience of the performers.” As well as seeing the audience and the dancers there are props in the space, two benches and the sound and lighting boxes. The lighting is used in specific ways to frame the stage space and is set up above, and around the room at eye level. One of the definitions of the word Loop means, “a shape produced by a curve that bends around and crosses itself,” which is evident in the creation of the environment before the movement patterns are even brought to your attention, (English Oxford Living Dictionaries).

The movement itself is evident of the second definition of, “Loop,” and uses many curves, in the body and throughout the space. The dancers use each others bodies as a way to maneuver through the movement sequences and are working with the curves and shapes of the human body to do so. Using the body as an instrument manifests the curved structure of movement because the human body is made up of hundreds of curves, from cells, to bones, to muscles. The body lends itself to creating organic curved structures in dance and improvisation because of the physical structure of the bones and muscles making them. Long bones of the arms and legs are slightly curved in structure and come to a round head, called an epiphysis, to connect in the joints, (Asmundson). Both the hip and the shoulder joint are ball and socket joints which allow for a wider range of motion and operate in a circular system, (Asmundson). In a Masterclass with dance artist David Raymond, he discusses how the structure of the body and the space constantly give the dancer information to take in, (Raymond). He talked about the idea of a feedback loop a dancer encounters when improvising, (Raymond). This type of feedback loop is evident by watching and listening the dancers in, Loop, Lull. Their repetition of the locomotive scores to find what combinations and timing work best for the looped movement are navigated through movement and text as they use phrases like, “Stop now,” “time,” “okay great,” and, “are you ready?”. 

        The word Loop means, “A structure, series, or process, the end of which is connected to the beginning, or a shape produced by a curve that bends around and crosses itself,” (English Oxford Living Dictionaries). The piece is choreographed in a way that the sequences come together out of the trial and error of improvisation. This seemingly improvised structure is used to find collective unison in combined repeated phrases, which is evident to the audience after several repeated cycles. Each dancer has their own loop of choreography that they use to intertwine with other people, while the group also has several interactive phrases that require each person to move in a specific pattern. The dancers work in these individual movement phrases and interact based on movement of themselves and others in the open of the circular audience, but they each also have gestural patterns. These patterns take them around the circumference of the room, within the confines of the audience seating. The gestural patterns take a longer time to recognize as a viewer because at first is seems that the dancers are just taking a break from the physicality of the continual movement they have been working through. As an audience member figuring out the patterns of the dancers becomes a game, while it is simultaneously a game for the performers to figure out.  It is structured in a way that by the time you start to recognize a pattern of movement, they change to a different looped sequence. All of these patterns exhibit the first definition given for the word Loop, they connect a series of movements from the end back to the beginning, enabling the dancers to explore the boundaries of the loop’s construction, (English Oxford Living Dictionaries).

Loops in the work are applied in layers, the lighting for example is set up around the room as well as above the performance space. The lighting cycles around the room turning on and off single lightbulbs in a repeated canon creating apparent movement of the dancers while they stand still; this is a moment where a loop is created somewhere outside of the performers bodies. This particular lighting is placed behind the seating of the audience encompassing the whole room, to give it a spinning effect. This idea of the loop moves through the dancers bodies, the space and is something that is seen in more works from Company 605 than just Loop, Lull. It works with all of the other intricacies that define the style that 605 has, (Martin and Gelley). A quality where it seems like someone else is in control of their bodies from somewhere inside of their being, a quality that surrenders completely to the movement but is ultimately aware of what is happening. Co-Artistic directors Gelley and Martin describe their work as, “Working from a hyper-physical vocabulary, Company 605 juxtaposes raw with precision, where effort, tension, exertion, and risk are highlighted and emphasized. They value endurance and fatigue as pathways to a further connection with movement. Their collaboration requires a relinquishing of control, which offers a freedom and openness in the workspace, and allows for the unexpected to occur, (Gelley and Martin). The relinquishing of control and experimentation with endurance and fatigue are tested through their work with loops, exploring the boundaries of the established looped structure to fatigue and relinquishing control through the process and transformative nature of improvisation. 

Photo by David Cooper

The word Lull means, “Calm or send to sleep, typically with soothing sounds or movements. Or a temporary interval of quiet or lack of activity,” (English Oxford Living Dictionaries). The lulls in this piece are far from the kind that would send you to sleep, but the whole piece has a calm energy in the way the dancers interact. They are so kinaesthetically aware of themselves and each other in the space that even in the unknown and ever-changing structure of the movement the audience is at ease with and can comfortably view the movement phrases. The lulls are used as a contrast to the loops, sometimes also being loops themselves. The gestural loops that each person has throughout the piece become more evident as the piece progresses and are used to anchor the space in a state of lull. The dancers typically exit the movement space and circle the outsides in a pedestrian appearance during these lulls, for example appearing to stretch or get a drink of water near either the benches or the lighting and sound boxes. Lulls appear during the gestural phrases of the dancers, when they are in these sequences that are also looped, it is a lull in the movement activity for the viewer but the phrase itself is loops for the dancers embodying it. Lulling is also experienced when the space is transforming itself between phrases. Each person slows their movement slightly and accommodates a smaller kinesphere to be able to react to other bodies moving in space. This slows the momentum of the piece and together with the sound in the space creates a lull of stimulation. 

        Text is used as a way to break the loops, while also helping to create them. It is used as a way for the dancers to communicate with each other in an un-repetitive format, using phrases like, “This is 1,” to create space holds and structures of bodies to remember in creating movement loops. They also use text to communicate how the structure is improvised, saying things like, “I will sweat more next time”, and, “next time I could be wearing different clothes.” This text within the movement seems improvised as well and that the dancers play off of each other. For example one dancer mentions sweating more then right after another mentions wanting to sweat less and the dancers and audience shared laughter in response to it. In contrast the text used at the end of the piece takes place after the space has shifted to create a ring with all the props now in the center of the space instead of where they started on the outsides. This text is used now to tell a story while the dancers move down a verbally described spiral staircase around the outside of the props in a tight clump while the lights fade out to black. While this part of the piece is creating a physical looped pathway around the room, the piece enters a phase of lulling with the lights fading and the dancers vocalizing a developing story. 

Loop, Lull is an enticing and engaging performance demonstrating how the title can both illustrate the movement and the atmosphere while connecting the dancers to each other, the space, and the audience. Each person’s specific movement pattern is integral to the success of the pattern collectively but can also operate individual to the group. This is reflected by the audience representing our society where each person plays a specific role in the general to society as a whole but where each person lives a life individual to anyone else. The embodiment of the title of the work in the dancers and in the space creates a piece where the audience is just as surprised and engaged in the work as the dancers are. This produces a piece you don’t want to miss a second of although what you are seeing keeps repeating in its looping and lulling state of creation. 

https://vimeo.com/311392911

Link to trailer for Loop, Lull and videos researched from previous work.

Works Cited 

Asmundson, R. C. Kinesiology 142: Introduction to Kinesiology, Laboratory Manual. 11th ed., School of Kinesiology, Simon Fraser              University, 2004. 

Curtis, Lindsey. “Artists-in-Residence.” The Dance Centre - Company 605: Loop, Lull, Scotiabank Dance Centre, January 8, 2019.                https://www.thedancecentre.ca/blog/view/2019/01/company_605_loop_lull 

Gelley, Lisa. Martin, Josh. “Artists.” Company 605, Accessed March 19, 2019. http://company605.ca/artists/

Gelley, Lisa. Martin, Josh. “Who We Are.” Company 605, Accessed March 19, 2019.        

        https://company605.ca/about-me/

Oxford University Press. “Loop.” 1-2, English Oxford Living Dictionaries, 2019. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/loop 

Oxford University Press. “Lull.” Verb 1 and Noun, English Oxford Living Dictionaries, 2019. 

        https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/lull

Raymond, David, Dance Masterclass, April 8, 2019.