2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Altered Archives’

Memories make us who we are today. Strange as it may seem, the tiniest object may trigger a memory and send us reeling into the past. As part of this year’s Capital Fringe Festival, the dancers of Motion X DC in collaboration with Lindsay Benson Garrett ponder the following thought in their production Altered Archives: “History has always affected the future. But what if we could reshape our past?”

archives

In a video projected onscreen, we see the strokes of a paintbrush and then a group of dancers who glide as smoothly as a paintbrush across a canvas.  Soon, the show switches to live dancing, and a group of phenomenal female dancers portray the story of the effects of memory.

Incredible dancer Elysia Greene receives what appears to be a red paper flowers and is suddenly rushed back into her powerful memories.  Alongside exquisite contemporary dancers Brittany Alness, Sarah Christopherson, Kayli Hueston, Sarah Mawyer, Mary Potts, and Laura Sniegowski, Greene struggles through her emotional memories and cluttered mind through the beauty of dance and is finally able to accept the memory’s effect on her life in the present.

Watching the strong and agile dancers is like a dream. They are so precise in every movement, from the bending of a finger to the movement of set pieces. The dancers glide across the stage with incredible grace and superb beauty.

Lindsay Benson Garrett, Kyoko Ruch, and Yuko Ruch put together the video aspect of the performance, choosing the imagery to accompany the dancing.

Choreographer Stephanie Dorrycott (who also directed the show with Lindsay Benson Garrett) and guest Choreographer Elysia Greene designed movement that so perfectly showed the process of dealing with memories and one’s past.

The simple set of columns and crags made of crumpled paper and the muted grey costumes allowed for the dancer’s movements and multimedia to be the main focus of the performance.

If you want to add a beautiful memory to your mind, make sure that you see Altered Archives!

Running Time: 50 minutes.

Altered Archives plays through Saturday, July 25, 2015 at the Eastman Studio Theatre at Galludet University—Florida Avenue NE & 8th Avenue,NE, in Washington, DC. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit their Capital Fringe Page.

RATING: BEST OF THE 2015 CAPITAL FRINGE FIVE-STARS-82x1555.gif

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