Courtyard

In Traveling Light, the latest sight-specific work that played to sold-out audiences during its brief two week-end run at the Mint, choreographer/director Joe Goode providds a visceral experience that demonstrated the extent of his sensitive and brilliant ear to the pulse of our nation’s current dilemma. What is the role of fossil fuels, of synthetic materials, indeed of personal possessions? What does it mean to be “natural,” and do we still have that capacity in this overtly technological society?  In this non-traditional venue for dance and theater, external and internal landscapes resonate with history, place, ideas, and time.

Mr. Goode’s artistry is amazing. His grasp of dance as communication is astounding. He is able to isolate very specific elements of gesture and movement with equally economic choices of text, light, sound, color, and costume. He then combines these elements — elements that reach inside the essence of experience  – so that his audience can recognize their own humanity. The result is visually, aurally and viscerally involving — and subtly powerful. In  Traveling Light, collaborating with dance and theatre designer Jack Carpenter, Goode additionally explores light, space and time, and what humanity decides to take into the future.

Before the show the audience is invited to visit the many varied vaults on the lower level of the Mint. Each one — unique in shape and size — evokes a single memory. Some of the vaults contain a human character engaged in a solitary activity, some just a visual image such as paper money flying in space in the darkness. Each is lit so that what we see appears as it might in a dream or quietly revealed memory. One vault reveals a teller repeatedly attempting to hand out currency. Another holds a woman elegantly dressed in clothing from a century ago pouring tea. She is held in the moment, tethered like a marionette to points unseen at the outer edges of the room. Another woman of the early 190000’s sits at the end of a longer vault. At such a distance from the viewer, doing her needlepoint, she appears remote, removed both in time and in her activity so unfamiliar to our own electronic age. Next-door is a huge machine that takes masses of gold dust and turns them into ingots. In the corner of another large vacant vault, a solitary man tries to warm himself over the fire of an oil drum. What we don’t realize until we see them later is that these are the elements and some of the characters who will enter the rooms above where we as an audience are divided into groups assigned to follow a guide. 

Once ushered into our numbered group, we sit in various configurations depending on the size of the room to await the performers. In some instances, they are there before we arrive. One such room has the skirt of a huge blue dress billowing over its upper balcony. At one point the very rich inhabitant of the dress slides beneath it leaving the weighty symbol of her wealth behind, enjoying the power of the games she tells us she plays.  

In an earlier room, the well-dressed Victorian woman magically glides from one point to another, revealing her family’s story of a gambling father who threw away their fortune. She too steps out of her garb as she recalls the passionate affair she had one summer with the hired hand who appears to dance with her. Their interactions convey the passion of their attraction as well as the pain of their parting.

The Victorian costumes reminiscent of the depression era evoke the struggle of that time while composer Jay Cloidt’s score adds energy and nuance to the production’s many moods, from playful to tragic.

The theme of letting-go of objects that weigh us down repeats in the sequence in the courtyard of the building beneath the starry night sky. A man saunters in wearing his coat and hat, which he discards. He repeats an earlier theme of enduring hard times. Three women enter, each in turn embracing him. He has learned to accept support from them but eventually runs away. When he returns he is weighed down by thirteen cabbages, which he drops one-by-one. At a time when the international dialogue is increasingly turning to eco-consciousness, Goode and Carpenter with great imagination challenge the viewer to examine his or her relationship to excess. In particular, how do we “travel light” into the future?

We hope that future will include another round of Traveling Light performances. It’s one of those experiences that stays with you long after the lights go out and the performers stand on pedestals in the Mint corridor to accept their well-deserved applause. For further information go to www.joegoode.org or twitter joegoodegroup.