Aerial dance is all about the risk: hanging upside down or letting go and trusting you’ll get caught. But 2-year-old circus-arts group Aloft takes risk a step further in “The Dinner of Our Discontent,” moving into traditional dance and theater. The payoff can be huge. Or not.
Veering from melancholy to hilarity to outright aggression, “Dinner” features five contentious sisters, their deceased parents and the family maid. They’ve gathered for the reading of the will, a time-honored dramatic situation that Aloft director Shayna Swanson makes her own by physicalizing grief and sibling rivalry. No words are spoken, which sets “Dinner” apart from acrobatic shows such as “Lookingglass Alice.”
The best of the 11 acts in Aloft’s 75-minute piece provide not only thrills and chills but insight into character. The maid (Beth Stare), who’s always balancing people’s needs, juggles a plate. The battling twins (Helena Reynolds and Laura Lippert) get way too close for comfort in “Necklace Dance.” The parents (Kara Klein and Paul Lange) re-create their courtship by posing as an upside-down pinup girl and an eager youth straight out of a Chagall painting.
Two fast-moving scenes of mass mayhem, choreographed by Swanson, really take off. “Dinner Bell Dance” ends with the maid swinging from a giant suspended lampshade, while “Fight Over the Will” has the performers skimming across or vaulting off a long table. Here kinetic and dramatic energy fuse to suggest the family’s emotional violence, setting up the final uneasy reconciliations.
Other scenes don’t transcend the circus. Focused on feats, these continue long after the dramatic point has been made. In the awkward final act, the performers’ mix of acrobatics and dance actually obscures the parents’ love.
“Dinner of Our Discontent” is being done on the cheap in Aloft’s down-at-heels Humboldt Park space (the company moves to new digs June 1).
The show isn’t meant to be pretty, and some of it falls flat on its figurative face. But taking a nose-dive is better than taking it easy.
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ctc-tempo@tribune.com
‘The Dinner of Our Discontent’
Aloft’s evening of aerial dance theater
When: 8 p.m. Friday-Sunday
Where: Aloft Loft, 941 N. California Ave.
Price: $20; 773-782-6662 or www.brownpapertickets.com/event/32799 or aloftaerial dance.com
