Katie Faulkner, “Loom” and “Until We Know For Sure”
I went to the West Wave Dance Festival last night with my friends Brian and Anne. I had never heard of Katie Faulkner before, but when I left, I was a fan. I’m pretty sure she’s the first choreographer I’ve even considered being a fan of. That’s not to say I’ve never seen “better” choreographers, but in the past I never really felt I should make an effort to follow their work.
I’m not a huge fan of modern dance, tending to go to it mainly on rare occasions with Brian and Anne. I don’t dislike it, but it’s not one of the arts I tend to follow. I don’t have much of a critical understanding of it, as I’ve discussed before.
The first piece of Faulkner’s was a film, rather than a live piece. That was “Loom”, although I fear that the rather tiny online version I link to doesn’t do it justice. I liked it enough that I made note of the director’s name to look up online later.
I didn’t have a program for the show at that point, so I didn’t realize that the next piece would also be hers. That piece was “Until We Know For Sure", and it was amazing. Absolutely amazing. A duet, featuring Faulkner and a male dancer (credited as “Private Freeman”).
I can’t describe it at all. I can only state that I was stunned both by the understanding of human relationships apparent in the piece and by the fact that the piece managed to well to communicate that understanding.
Not all of the pieces at the show were good, but I would have sat through hours of them just to get to see “Until We Know For Sure”, because it was that good.
Manuelito Biag’s “Terra Incognita” was the main reason Brian and Anne, and hence myself, were there. It was one of the stronger ones, but not at the level of “Until We Know For Sure”. It also featured Katie Faulkner, providing music, so it turns out that not only can she dance and choreograph extremely well, she also writes songs, plays the guitar, and has a great singing voice.