Tasman Clark
The Lula Washington Dance Theatre is a South Los Angeles contemporary dance company that was founded by Lula and Erwin Washington. Lula boasts an impressive resume in choreographing dances for James Cameron’s Avatar and the original The Little Mermaid. A majority of their pieces express the African-American experience and themes that directly relate to Lula herself, who choreographs most of the pieces seen. The show itself, holding the same name as the company, is a compilation of four of their best works, and one world premiere performance, all done with their 10 piece group.
The show opens with And We Can Fly, a spiritual piece based on African American healing technologies and concepts, centralised on the three characters of Faith, dressed in purple, Love in red, and Hope in white. Unfortunately, Hope is lost, so Love decides to take the Love Train to Earth, in a huge soul and funk dance, where they encourage the whole audience to get up and groove! Everyone was clapping their hands on the journey. But; the music cuts, and we are shown what Earth looks like when hope is lost. Images of hate crimes flash up on the screen; segregation and racism dating back to the founding of America, up until George Floyd and BLM protests of the modern day. It was one of the most viscerally contrasting and thought provoking moments I’ve seen in a performance. An awkward shot hits you as you are caught standing up, half clapping with a smile on your face as you realise what is happening on screen. Everyone sits back down, and soaks in the rest. Hope is found and, some, peace is found within the world.
A quick 4 minute reset, and we are treated to the next performance, Today, which is a series of short solo dances with excerpts of poems and spoken words presented by the dancers. They are all race stories, each from African American (Michael Tomlin III), Latin American (Danny Guerrero) and Asian (Kozue Kasahara) perspectives; culminating in a finale with all of them together preaching “I will survive!”. These performances shined on the individual talent that the dancers have in the show, allowing them to utilise the full stage for their solo pieces. Michael Tomlin III shown on the stage, clearly having a strong classical dance background, as his fluidity and focus conveyed such emotion without saying a word.
Another quick reset, and we’re into the third piece, We Wore The Mask. It begins with a woman sitting on a stool facing her back towards the audience, moving slightly to the groove of the free form jazz drums, performed by Marcus L. Miller. As the performer turns, we see she is wearing a mask of grotesque proportions, playing into the racial stereotype of African Americans. As the drums get more intense, her body moves rigidly and sickly. She fights with the mask, and eventually pulls it off to reveal their true face. Other performers swarm the stage in blue turtlenecks and we are taken into a 30 minute non-stop dance performance with intense freeform drums batting away in the background. With impressive leaps, bounds and contortions done by the dancers, it was the most enthralling piece o f them all. The drums gave the performers a driving rhythm that made my eyes glue to the stage; and I continued to ask “They’re STILL going?” as they pass the thirty minute mark
The second half of the show was much more pure dance; and included only two pieces.
The first being Master Plan, which was by far the performance with the best visuals The lightning mimicked an African sunset, with strong orange hues filling the corners of the backdrop, and was littered with Savannah silhouettes. The music was an ambient groove, with synthesizers elevating the already picturesque backdrop. The dancers also leaned into the warm visuals, by using different coloured fabrics, each representing a different chakra, and moving across the stage to support the lead performers in their acts. This performance truly took you to another world with the combination of techniques used, and I felt swept away into an ethereal land.
Reign, the final performance, wraps the whole show up by focussing on the themes of God and Love. The backdrop representing a church interior, the dancers wearing all white, and voices of preaching coming from them; the Christian messaging is strong! This piece held the most energy compared to others. Once again, we were all invited to stand up to cheer and clap along to the show. As energetic as it was, I do wish this piece came earlier in the show, as it was the last one it ramped my energy all the way up only for the curtains to close. It would’ve been perfect as a half-time coffee break.
Finally, during the curtain call, Lula Washington came out and we are led to sing happy birthday for her 75th. A soul touching moment for an earth shattering show; Lula Washington Dance Theatre displayed unique talent with strong collaborative coherence. Culminating in a dance between performers, musicians and even the stage crew. More info on the season that was, here.
A quick 4 minute reset, and we are treated to the next performance, Today, which is a series of short solo dances with excerpts of poems and spoken words presented by the dancers. They are all race stories, each from African American (Michael Tomlin III), Latin American (Danny Guerrero) and Asian (Kozue Kasahara) perspectives; culminating in a finale with all of them together preaching “I will survive!”. These performances shined on the individual talent that the dancers have in the show, allowing them to utilise the full stage for their solo pieces. Michael Tomlin III shown on the stage, clearly having a strong classical dance background, as his fluidity and focus conveyed such emotion without saying a word.
Another quick reset, and we’re into the third piece, We Wore The Mask. It begins with a woman sitting on a stool facing her back towards the audience, moving slightly to the groove of the free form jazz drums, performed by Marcus L. Miller. As the performer turns, we see she is wearing a mask of grotesque proportions, playing into the racial stereotype of African Americans. As the drums get more intense, her body moves rigidly and sickly. She fights with the mask, and eventually pulls it off to reveal their true face. Other performers swarm the stage in blue turtlenecks and we are taken into a 30 minute non-stop dance performance with intense freeform drums batting away in the background. With impressive leaps, bounds and contortions done by the dancers, it was the most enthralling piece o f them all. The drums gave the performers a driving rhythm that made my eyes glue to the stage; and I continued to ask “They’re STILL going?” as they pass the thirty minute mark
The second half of the show was much more pure dance; and included only two pieces.
The first being Master Plan, which was by far the performance with the best visuals The lightning mimicked an African sunset, with strong orange hues filling the corners of the backdrop, and was littered with Savannah silhouettes. The music was an ambient groove, with synthesizers elevating the already picturesque backdrop. The dancers also leaned into the warm visuals, by using different coloured fabrics, each representing a different chakra, and moving across the stage to support the lead performers in their acts. This performance truly took you to another world with the combination of techniques used, and I felt swept away into an ethereal land.
Reign, the final performance, wraps the whole show up by focussing on the themes of God and Love. The backdrop representing a church interior, the dancers wearing all white, and voices of preaching coming from them; the Christian messaging is strong! This piece held the most energy compared to others. Once again, we were all invited to stand up to cheer and clap along to the show. As energetic as it was, I do wish this piece came earlier in the show, as it was the last one it ramped my energy all the way up only for the curtains to close. It would’ve been perfect as a half-time coffee break.
Finally, during the curtain call, Lula Washington came out and we are led to sing happy birthday for her 75th. A soul touching moment for an earth shattering show; Lula Washington Dance Theatre displayed unique talent with strong collaborative coherence. Culminating in a dance between performers, musicians and even the stage crew. More info on the season that was, here.