Reina Desrouleaux
Cultures of Dance
I attended the Felt Room twice, once for the first half of the performance, and another for the latter half. Both experiences took me on a spiritual and meditative journey where a shared human experience was a path, and understanding was the destination.
The experience began as a shock, as my eyes struggled to adjust to the complete darkness of the room. I felt disoriented and uncomfortable as my eyes made up green patterns and specs to make up for the dark environment. The dancers moaned and took rapid deep breaths that made me feel outside of myself. I felt like I was in a haunted house without the theatrics and chainsaw wielding masked men. I tried to find a place in the room, I shuffled against the wall, frightened of the unknown center. My body attempted to ground itself in my senses but the lack of visual stimuli made me all the more aware of the grooves in the wall, and the rhythm of the dancers’ breaths. I sat down on the floor and allowed myself to adjust to the performance.
There were moments where I found myself wanting to join the performance. There was a removal of the traditional boundaries of audience and performer. I felt like I was a part of the performance, but also simultaneously felt like I was watching a movie by being in the film. I wanted to move, moan, breath, and touch along with the dancers but that felt like too strong of a break of a fourth wall.
Overall, I enjoyed the second part of the performance far more than the first. The first felt like spiritual hellscape, granted, I do not like and nor do I feel comfortable in the dark. I very much enjoyed the moments with the florescent lights. and the still but fluid movements of the dancers. It reminded me of a natural setting, similar to a forest . I wanted to walk into the performance and witness the movements more closely, and to “frolic” through the human trees. I enjoyed the part near the end of the performance where the dancers became a part of the pile of clothing. I wanted to join in that movement, that appeared to be like that of a child discovering its environment. The covering of the dancers heads, and their continued intertwining felt like a poignant statement on the human condition. Perhaps we are always connected through our shared curiosity for our environment, always wanting to find more, always yearning for a meaningful connection. It felt like I was witnessing an artist at peace, trying to communicate that the curiosity had led them to a moment of understanding.
The end of the piece, with the very loud and continuous electronic-like white noise, was the most soothing experience I’ve had in a while. I felt like I had been taken to a happy place that I had always imagined but not quite been to. Perhaps it was the lighting, which made me feel like a still moment on a polaroid in your mother’s secret photo-album of her youth. I felt like I had been placed in a memory, where you first met your spouse, your favorite day out camping, watching a child’s first steps. The lighting, sound, and breeze felt like a moment of nostalgic euphoria.
Reina Desrouleaux
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