Danceworks’ ‘Sonder’ Honors Life’s Complexity

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Photo by Mark Frohna

Danceworks "Sonder"

Danceworks "Sonder"

Sonder is the mysterious title of a major new modern dance work by choreographer and dancer Gina Laurenzi, created with and performed by the Chicago musical trio Twin Talk, Danceworks Performance MKE and the Danceworks Intergenerational Performance Company.

The beautifully structured, two act dance and music drama is also the second Danceworks Performance MKE offering under Christal Wagner’s artistic direction. It had just four performances in the Next Act Theatre space. It deserves wide exposure, maybe a national tour or at least a Chicago visit, if the cast of 15  compelling dancers and three indispensable musicians could be reassembled.

I wish I could see it again because it’s so complex and fascinating. Each performer lives in it individually, and for that reason I wish I could see them un-masked. I wish I’d been part of a packed house, not only for the energy that brings, but to amplify the meaning work’s meaning.

“Sonder” is a noun invented by John Koenig in his Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. It means “the realization that each random passer-by is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.” Sonder is the philosophical position that guides this pure dance and music piece. The meaning is never illustrated, yet never out of mind. Complexity and vividness are the fabric. Music shapes it.

The setting suggests a living room, beautifully lighted from overhead by Colin Gawronski and with standing lamps that dancers can turn on or off. Performers of different ages spend time there alone or in different combinations, sometimes working together, sometimes apart. Items of furniture are removed, rearranged or returned in some new way to open new views. We could be watching the workings of a single mind rife with half-conscious memories, desires and concerns.

Spoken Long Ago

Sonder begins and ends with wordless unaccompanied singing by Twin Talk’s vocalist and bassist, Katie Ernst. At the final climax, she sings the only show’s only words. If I understood correctly, they are: “All the words you meet now were spoken long ago.” Perhaps it’s a quote from Koenig’s book, but for me it tied the action to the beginning of our species, to drives we barely note. Humans have been complicated from the start, in other words. This work honors that.

Twin Talk’s original score is best described, I think, as “new classical” with a strong jazz influence. It sounds both new and timeless. Drummer Andrew Green played a staggering array of international percussion instruments with keen sensitivity and delicacy. Dustin Laurenzi, brother to the choreographer, made his saxophone a human voice, sometimes “singing” duets with Ernst who’d vocalize while playing her bass violin. I was constantly transported. Sonder could stand as a music concert.

But the dancing transported me, too. Gina Laurenzi and Christal Wagner are great dancers, masters of this style in all its detail and power to surprise. Alisha Jihn thrilled us with a fast series of full-body movements, a genuine tour de force. Gaby Sustache, Nekea Leon, Ivy Robertson, Hallie Sivertson, Cuauhtli Ramirez Castro, Cedar Becher, Courtney Dorzak and Kaitlyn Moore did memorable work, as well. I know them all better now.

And from the Intergenerational Company, Tom Hjelmgren and his daughter Katrina had funny and true father-daughter moments and, with Jeanne Kollmeyer and Judy Zoelzer Levine, added warmth and wit.