A Study of Excellent Craft: "A Love Supreme"

photo: Anne Van Aerschot

Who: Walker Art Center

Presents: Salva Sanchis and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker/Rosas

What: A Love Supreme

It seemed like such a simple composition assignment: make a dance where each dancer embodies an instrument from John Coltrane’s 1965 album A Love Supreme. It was done expertly. Clearly crafted, impeccably danced, the movement seemed to embroider music on the air and yet at the end I found myself asking, “Why?”

The movement is what stood out. I’ll meet A Love Supreme where it shone.

Four men clad in black entered the stage. A silent quartet ensued that formed a chain of tugging and swooping into tautness only to be unraveled by a singular body part left aloft. There was just enough to fill the eye. One or two abrupt halts punctuated the muted chaos. I thought, “Ha! Let’s stop on count 173 just to keep the audience on their toes, make them wonder how much of this is planned.” It seemed to hold both “this is all there is” and “you haven’t seen anything yet”.

A solo emerged from the group, just as silent, equally casual yet anticipatory. I remember he waved as if meeting a crush in third grade; elbow stuck to the ribcage and bladed palm lifted hesitantly. It stood out from the solo’s pensive attitude and ongoing groove. Fingers closed, scooping, turning inward, falling and catching. He maneuvered wind and made it look pleasurable.

Within the cavern of the theater the music erupted. There was no major shift in movement. Maybe I was supposed to think, “Ahhhh this is why the relationship between music and dance is so satisfying.” And so I did.

Each soloist embodied an instrument. Beyond that though, they embodied the unique vibrations of their instrument as well as the rhythm. To describe the vibrations of the piano (short, articulated, knobby, punctuated, talkative) is to describe the way in which it was moved to. The solo accompanying the saxophone was blazing, interfering, mingling, boisterous, and unexpected. The movement to the drums rumbled as only drums can.

Eventually the movers united. It wasn’t until a couple minutes in that I realized I was watching something familiar: the pulling, rippling, connected chain from the beginning. Only this time it was filled with sound.

Love Supreme was an excellent example of a study on improvisation meeting set material. I wanted to chew on more with this piece, the taste left with me was just "music is something to both improvise and choreograph to" along with seeing some masterful dancing.