Borrowed Light is a return engagement of the work first produced at Jacob’s Pillow in 2006. The 70-minute dance
inspired by the history and the music of the Shakers is a collaboration
presented by the Tero Saarinen Company and The Boston Camerata. The concept is inspired. The execution is extraordinary.
Saarinen, who joins his seven
dancers, has conceived a dance and music piece that evokes the Shaker ethos
without aiming to replicate or document that unique history. In “Borrowed Light”
men dance with women and emotions are permitted full expression. But taken from
the historical record that Saarinen was drawn to, the dance emanates from the
Shaker practice of movement through prayer. Addressing a godly power permitted
physical excess – not adornment and certainly not vanity. But to embrace
the divine, worshippers were freed to use outward physical expression.
The ensemble is mesmerizing and
the dance vocabulary defies comparison to any other choreographer you might
consider. It is rare, indeed, to see work that stands fully on its own and
cannot be compared to anything or anyone else. This makes the evening a fitting
tribute to Jacob’s Pillow’s 80th anniversary. But the accolades
extend beyond dance.
The Boston Camerata, under music director Anne
Azema, perform a
series of Shaker songs as the score for the dance. The eight singers are
onstage throughout, often working with the dancers, and their plainsong fills
the Ted Shawn Theatre with warmth, spirit and rich harmonies. As I write this,
I acknowledge that this description fails to do justice to the role they play –
let me stress that the musical ensemble does not stand at the side in shadow
while the dancers seize the spotlight. This is a true collaboration, and in the
very finest way the audience loses sight of who is singing and who is dancing.
The whole evolves into an experience as deeply religious as it might have been
for the Shakers, themselves.
The Ted Shawn Theatre is an
ordained venue for this folk-based (not to be read as folk dance, in any
traditional way) creation. And the venue itself, hardly state-of-the-art in
technical and design terms, lends itself to the superior design elements that the
Saarinen Company has brought to their work. The lighting design (Mikki Kunttu) reaches beyond the stage as it
draws us closer to the event. Boundaries are crossed and the moment of that
transition cannot be identified, so organic is the design. Erika Turunen
has designed costumes for the dancers that are breathtaking in their beauty and
fluidity and wholly unspecific. As much as we know that the Shakers are
Saarinen’s inspiration, Turunen reminds we that we inhabit a world without
limitations. (The singers are less carefully attired.)
Ella Baff,
the Pillow’s Executive and Artistic Director, along with her entire creative
and administrative team, continue to enlist the finest artists for the summer
season. Inviting “Borrowed Light” to return is a generous gift to the Pillow
audience, both those who are seeing Saarinen.Canerata for the first time and to
those who have brought their fondest memories of the 2006 premiere performance.