Rosie Returns

Rosie Herrera returned to ADF a few weeks ago, with a revamped "Pity Party" that premiered at last year's festival, and the new "Dining Alone," which was commissioned by ADF.

It has been such a privilege to watch the progression of her work over the last three years, and get to see it develop and her visions clarify. It was a thrilling evening, as usual.

Here's an excerpt from my review for World Dance Reviews:

It's their party, and they'll cry, laugh, dance, stomp, and sing if they want to: Rosie Herrera's dancers at ADF

The magic is still alive as Rosie Herrera returns to the Reynolds Industries Theater for the third year in a row with her particular, quirky brand of dance theater. She has become a festival favorite in recent years, for the surreal, wild, and touching landscapes she creates in her dances. Her now familiar style--collecting separate, vivid scenes into a dramatic mosaic--serves her well, displaying her sense of comic timing and emotional resonance to full effect. The scenes--bizarre, uncomfortable, poignant, startling--don't always make sense in isolation, but together, they take on a complex significance. The two works on this evening's program both deal in some way with love, human connection, and hope; love is messy, both dances declare, and the things we do to get it and keep it, the things we do when love is over, are absurd and funny and heartbreaking.

Herrera's new work, "Dining Alone," is sparer and has a more serious tone than some of her other recent works. It is a truly beautiful collection of highly concentrated images, rather like a series of poems. The opening image starts before the lights come up, with a rush of bodies running offstage in the darkness, followed by the clatter and wobble of spinning plates. The lights come up briefly on the spinning plates, which frame a pathway through which Herrera walks, her long white dress glowing in the half-light. It is a quick moment--the lights go dark again as the plates settle and fall--but rather astonishing.

You can read the rest of the review here.