"Maybe Forever" Is An Unflinching Dance Reflecting Real Love
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Stuart and Gehmacher dance the realities of a relationship. (Photo courtesy of Steven Gunther.)
In "Maybe Forever," running only through Saturday at REDCAT, Meg Stuart (Damaged Goods) and Philipp Gehmacher (Mumbling Fish), present the beautiful struggle of a human relationship. Mimicking a state of perpetual uncertainty, the dancers gradually shift through space and time. Their movements are often minimal superficially, but each seemingly simple gesture comes from the gut.
The dancers begin lying on a dimly lit stage. Slowly, deliberately their limbs shift on the earth, until they eventually roll into contact. Resistance is apparent. As Gehmacher internally carves his body to envelop Stuart, she quickly reacts and his body rebounds in the other direction. This amorphous world of push and pull continues until the two reconnect. The struggle ultimately ends in progress, and they move forward as a unit while light slowly fills the stage.
A simple set- a circular arc of curtains, a single grey platform, electric guitar and a backdrop with the images of ferns and two wishing weeds- is revealed. The stage is a liminal space somewhere between outside and in; dense and fleeting; public and private.
Musician Niko Hafkenscheid enters the stage and performs a song that evokes the title of the piece. Stuart steps into this world and recalls moments of intimacy, which she later retracts with the phrase, "I take it back."
As Hafkenscheid's music seeps back in, the duet begins their dance once again. They perform a "waltz" of reactive and syncopated gestures and undulations. The dance grows in intensity until the two land on the floor in exhaustion. They regain their composure and Stuart rests her head in Gehmacher's lap, a moment of comfort.
Movement and struggle resume until Stuart pulls the upstage curtain and steps backstage, in full sight. All walls dropped, we witness the raw reality of their private world.
Janine Audick designed three costumes of increasing formality, which the dancers wrap themselves in with each revelatory moment of their relationship.
The piece draws to a close as Stuart speaks again in the style of spoken word poetry. She laments their separation and continually interjects the phrase "long arms" while holding her own arms above her head. It's a code of intimacy, the ultimate inside joke between lovers.
Gehmacher finally speaks in the end. "I have to accept the place I'm in," he says. Stuart and Hafkenscheid listen calmly, stiffly. A moment of acceptance, perhaps, but one without resolve.
REDCAT in Walt Disney Concert Hall
213-237-2800
Through Saturday, September 26
