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(55 minutes/ 6 dancers) Hurricane Flora: Inferno touches on Wood’s choreographic themes of femininity and the elements. The work consists of four consecutive sections, Air, Fire, Earth and Water. In Hurricane Flora: Inferno, the dancers utilize each element to inspire a visceral expression of their personal life experiences. By encompassing the qualities of the selected element, the dancers lead the audience through an experiential journey of female struggle, passion and hope. Each section of the work takes a different approach to examining life choices women face. Hurricane Flora: Inferno opens with Air: a whirlwind of movement and drama. Four industrial fans placed on stage fill the space with ongoing air – adding to the ferocity of the emotionally charged journey. Fire unfolds with a more abstracted, visceral physicality, as the women of Ellis Wood Dance manipulate their bodies in space with sensual abandon. Sheathed in endless mesh fabric, the dancers writhe and pull its limits, traversing through the space as their embers intensify into a reckless blaze. Earth follows beginning with a personal ritual and building through tension, anxiety and struggle to an apocalyptic explosion. Just as hope seems lost – Water begins and a rebirth is realized. The evening-length work incorporates an original score by Composer Daniel Bernard Roumain. Architect Ed Rawlings, designer of the new Dance Theater Workshop, has created a multi-media set for the piece. Rawlings has developed an element-inspired film which is projected simultaneously with the music and choreography. In addition, Naoko Nagata has designed the costumes, each echoing unique qualities of a particular element. “Ms. Wood makes dark, dense dances for women. Her choreography sometimes seems to have been written out in blood.” -Jennifer Dunning, (preview) New York Times “This Hurricane seemed unstoppable…Wood’s dances are choreographically strong and emotionally scary.” -Jack Anderson, New York Times “Riotous, satisfying…one reason is the barely contained abandon in Wood’s choreography. Energy explodes from torsos, courses through limbs…another reason is the work’s operatic tanztheater melodrama.” - Susan Yung, Dance Magazine “Wood employs her signature highly physical style of choreographic expression… a wonderfully cathartic frenzy of action.” -Lisa Jo Sagolla, Back Stage “Ellis Wood is a tempest. Her recent premiere, "Hurricane Flora," seen this past weekend at Dance Theater Workshop, where I am a member of the board, pounds like a furious gale. Nine women toss themselves through the theater with thrilling virtuosity and a seething sensuality, shifting quickly from wounded waif to raging banshee. Wood's choreography is both rant and rapture, moving in a moment from exposed to authoritative.” - Maura Nguyen Donohue, The Dance Insider |
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