Colleen Thomas Dance

"the beautiful and the ominous mingle in thoughtfully poetic ways" - Village Voice

2005- 2010 Repertory 

Jane Can't Connect
July, 15 2009

 Jane Can’t Connect, a performative duet between Colleen Thomas and Chris Lancaster that grew out of improvisation. Where they put onstage for the audience the interactions that they had come to enjoy in the studio as collaborators. The roles of musician, dancer, director, interpreter, boss, and worker were jumbled in this work, which included skating, music boxes, and the song Open Arms, by Journey.

Winning You with Words (this is how we fall)
January, 31 2008

Inspired by the dialog of artistic permission and restraint utilized in Lars von Trier’s The Five Obstructions, Thomas, musical collaborator Christopher Lancaster, and costumer Joanna Seitz experiment with control and authorship as each places deliberate roadblocks to the other’s creative process. This new trio, which is derived from Von Trier’s exploration of mentor Jorgen Leth’s film “The Perfect Human” was made for performers Ted Johnson, Julia Burr, and Karl Rogers- three experienced performers all of whom happen to be taller than 6 feet.


Catching Her Tears (40°N 73°W)
2007

a psychologically wrought, physically dramatic prying open of the pathos of loss and the desperation in trying to find. Undulating choreography accompanied by an incessantly passionate score hurtle the dancers through a landscape of suspense and quiet terror. Dancers explore the unrelenting tension between skirting the edge of disaster and reeling toward the unknown.

The composition of gesture deftly describes our nonverbal impulses, the quiet conversations of our emotional lives. Dancers become creatures that bear weight, both physical and psychological, at times dropping their burdens and their histories with a thump onto the floor, at other times hurtling their cargo through space. The stage is set for drama-but instead of resolution, the tension is maintained. The performers delight and horrify as they prepare to take us on the same high-stakes journey once more. With a flick, a nervous tick, a convulsive bounce, the premise for this mysterious narrative is set, only to explode with complete momentum, all legs and limbs, spiraling up out of the floor, running across the space on feet or on hands, leveraging off each other. Punctuated by gestures of nurture and simplicity. Character driven, culminating in one man’s attempt to recapture stability.


Photos ©  Alex Escalante, Gary Noel, Ian Douglas, Ernesto Mancebo, Yi-Chun Wu, Judy Stuart, Lovin Ostenrik, and Michael Discenza