The circles around her eyes are as dark as her hair, fallen in a halo around her head as she lay still on the floor. Her white, virginal slip is a stark contrast to the black attire we were instructed to wear for the occasion. We watch as two identically dressed women circle the one on the floor, moving in sync and in repetition, a ritual being performed in front of our eyes. Their staccato movements quicken, their muscles quiver with the incoming supernatural power, their eyes burn with the passion and determination within. The woman on the floor, a cross carved into her forehead, suddenly gasps for air, life returning to her. She arches her back off the floor and emits a feral growl from deep within. What have we unleashed?
Like OdDancity’s Marbles, this year’s Invoke aims to bring horror through immersive dance. A straightforward narrative, Invoke sits the audience in a séance circle where three tragic and vengeful spirits are summoned: Agony, Power and Death. Each dancer takes a turn invoking a spirit, which inhabits their body and commands our attention. With the dancers next to, and interacting with, guests, they demand our engagement and even participation. This seating dynamic lends itself to the exploration of the “virgin/whore” theory found rampantly in the horror genre. While their white slip dresses, trimmed in lace, bring to mind purity and innocence, the dancers’ interactions with and light touches of the audience while possessed suggest a more sexual and feral behavior.
However, even though the dancers’ bodies are on display – they dance and contort in the center of ten pairs of eyes – they are in control and consenting, both within the narrative and the performance. The women take turns willingly giving their bodies over to the spirits they call upon, all of which explore a different obstacle women face every day, some more prominent now during the #metoo movement. In Agony, Jessie Nagler contorts and tears at her flesh as if it is no longer her own. The spirit she invoked now has authority over Nagler’s body, who only regains control after living out Agony’s death. Kerri Patterson summons Power and dominates over the audience, demanding attention. As Power, Patterson reenacts the ultimate display of authority over another – murder. Lastly, in Leslie Augustine’s invocation of Death, the spirit proves uncontrollable and we discover we must accept our limitations and let Death run her course.
Invoke pushes the dancers’ bodies to the limits; they are at once fierce and vulnerable, bringing a versatility and strength to their movements. While some portions could be more in sync, the dancers evoke the intrinsic fervor found in ritualistic repetition. At times, their bodies tremble at the controlled power they contain; at others, their limbs are thrown about wildly as if they no longer know how to use them. Choreographer Alex Floyd has done a phenomenal job differentiating the three spirits, and creating a piece that emphasizes the strengths of each of the dancers, and composer Tim Beck has contributed a haunting and unsettling score in which to highlight the personalities of the spirits.
Produced by Bianca Crespo, and co-produced by Floyd and Veronica Vasquez, Invoke is a haunting paranormal dance piece that offers something different this October. Favoring mood and emotions over gore and jump scares, this supernatural piece resonates with everyday life and lingered with me for some time afterward.
For more information, check out OdDancity’s Facebook page and Instagram, or sign up and donate to their Patreon. Click here for more on Invoke, and purchase your tickets to the séance here.
