DANCE | In "beyond.words," dre.dance tackle the challenging task of conveying—and celebrating—the experience of autism
Video by dre.dance
The dre.dance contemporary dance company took on the daunting task of portraying the soul of autism in the Midwest premiere of its latest work beyond.words at the Ordway Center last Thursday, May 20. The founders of dre.dance, Andrew Palermo and Taye Diggs, were inspired to create this dance work by a CNN documentary about Amanda Baggs, a woman who used technology to convey her autism as an alternative way of seeing the world. The dance portrays the outward expressions of autism, but does not fully realize its apparent goal of conveying the internal life of those afflicted with autism as a viable and desirable alternative world.
Palermo and Diggs relied on Baggs's videos portraying her world of autism as the foundation for developing their dance work. Then, through a serious of intensive study, workshops, residencies, and interviews with persons affected by Autism Spectrum Disorders, the company developed this dance performance about autism.
The hallmark of this dance work is the incorporation of the repetitive behaviors that characterize some of those affected by autism: slow shifting or rocking motions, arm slapping, odd hand movements, etc. There are three movements to the dance. The first dance number starts with a small child and his mother. The second movement focuses on the inner world of autism. The final movement has the son as a grown man who is finally able to break through his autism and make physical and emotional contact with another. There is a stillness and sharpness to the stimming movements in the first act and these movements effectively convey the isolation caused by autism—but the scene also conveys a bareness in life that grows uncomfortable to watch. The separateness remains in the second movement, but the movements are faster and there is more of a sense of movement and community. The final scene is the most successful, with the constant push for the man to touch and connect with another and culminating with the actual physical/emotional contact.
The set and costumes for the show are simple. Renea Goforth has off-white costumes for the most of the dance company, while the child and the adult version of the child are dressed in white scrubs. The space has a white wall in back and the only set pieces are the bodies of the dancers.
This was a challenging dance to watch. It has multiple layers, from the obvious stimming movements to its attempt to portray the internal world of autism. Some of it was beyond my ability to follow. Even if the show did not always convey an understanding of autism, it does accomplish its purpose of provoking interest into the internal world of the autistic.
Ordway Center for the Performing Arts
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Bev Wolfe is a local attorney and an avid theatergoer.
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