By Jason Hagey and Alisha Hagey
Salt Lake Acting Company presents the world premiere of a new art form within Silent Dancer, here in Salt Lake City, Utah. Set in 1920’s Manhattan, Silent Dancer fictionalizes the lives of real-life characters in a reality where conversations are had both in words and dance. Silent pictures are being made all over New York City, and Rosie Quinn and her brother Mike aspire to become famous dancers for those pictures. While the play is set in the 20s, with all of its jazz and movie-making, the nuances and themes reflect a very modern era of immigration, sexual identity, and celebrity. Silent Dancer explores our contemporary society in a manner you probably have never seen before and will change the way you see your own life and society.
Rosie and Michael Quinn grow up in Hell’s Kitchen with dreams of being dancers in the pictures. Rosie begins a relationship – forbidden at the time – with Perry Branfield, a black jazz pianist and composer. Mike heads off to the Great War only to come back with (in modern parlance) PTSD and a burgeoning sense of his own sexual identity in a society unfamiliar with homosexuality. Their lives interweave between childhood friend, Jackie “Legs” Diamond, an infamous gangster and bootlegger, and New York’s most famous couple: F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
Silent Dancer takes a huge risk. As a community, we are used to the traditional musical where character development happens within a musical beat. Instead of relying on music, this story turns to modern dance. They use contemporary motions as monologues, as scenes, where days and weeks pass, or maybe just moments. Conversations are held within the movement and greater texture is created with a pointed toe and reach of the arm. We journey with these people, feeling what they feel, all through the silent movements of contemporary dance.
Perhaps what Silent Dancer does best is using modern dance, done in silence without musical accompaniment, to make physical the silent dance that goes on inside all of us. Sometimes it is hard to express just what we feel in words. Silent Dancer uses movement to express those emotions, thoughts, and feelings to create a tapestry of ideas in a kind of language all its own. Where words usually fail us, Silent Dancer succeeds in expressing through symbols and gestures.
Playwright Kathleen Cahill creates a world that is both life and larger than life. She uses simplicity in text and gives the chance for the movement to become a partner to her words. In the second act, there are a few bumps where the timeline becomes muddled, but we forgive it as an audience because we have come to care for the characters. Choreographer Christopher Ruud merges textual understanding with motion. He uses dance to fill in the unspoken words. He uses dance to create emotion. All of this pairs well with the sound design of Jen Jackson (Sound Design and Composer). Together these three weave a story told with moments of music, highlighting silence, and creating a contextual and relatable Roaring Twenties.
Director Cynthia Fleming allows dance to take center stage. She isn’t afraid of the quiet, isn’t afraid to take risks. She expects her audience to rise to the challenge of learning the language of dance. For all of us who have always looked in and wanted to become dancers but never had the talent or training, this piece is a delight. I can imagine it would be difficult if you don’t have at least a small love of modern dance to start. But the expectation is that we will accept dance as language. I do believe this pays off. This new hybrid of storytelling becomes more beautiful for the exchange as words and motion blur into one.
Dennis Hassan (Set Design), Joshua Roberts (Projection Design), and Michael Horejsi (Lighting Design) have to work together supporting traditional theatrical storytelling with elements of dance (side lighting and open spaces). Together they create a lovely world of dichotomies. The reality of Hell’s Kitchen is dark, but the hope for something more is bathed in gold. They do their jobs well, especially considering how many scenes there are and how they have to take us from fantasy to daily life within seconds.
Costume DesignER Nancy Hills deserves special recognition. She has to create an authenticity that is at once true to the period and also has to make clothing that can be danced in. The result is a beautiful line mixing time period with fashion.
Mikki Reeve (Rosie Quinn) leads an ensemble cast. She is in every scene as the narrator, main character, and the through-line between famous and infamous. Reeve’s load is heavy. Without her guidance through the play’s reality, we would be lost. Her relationship with Darrell T. Joe (Perry Branfield) is palpable, sensual without eroticism, and innocent all at once. Reeve traverses her relationships with grace and a sense of youthful naïveté – quite an accomplishment.
The supporting cast is composed of William Richardson (Michael Quinn), Austin Archer (Jackie “Legs” Diamond), Alice Ryan (Zelda Fitzgerald), and Noah Kershisnik (F. Scott Fitzgerald). Every actor is equal parts charismatic and pathos, preferring not to be stereotypes but real people with real needs. The ensemble and dancers McKenzie Barkdull, Makayla Cussen, Savannah Roberts, and Jorji Diaz provide a beautiful expression of the inner world of characters.
What makes Salt Lake Acting Company’s Silent Dancer so relevant is Cahill’s connection to characters. Within her story, within the pages of history, we have men and women who are reaching for more and wanting something better. Cahill connects us to the Twenties and bridges the gap between social issues then and now, finding that the human condition hasn’t changed much. We still deal with class, race, immigration, poverty, desire, and loneliness. We might not live between the lines of speakeasies and silent films, but we do intersect with our shared hopes for a better tomorrow.
Salt Lake Acting Company presents Silent
Dancer by Kathleen Cahill
Upstairs Theatre, 168 West 500 North, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84103
April 10 – May 12, 2019, 7:00 PM Wednesdays – Saturdays, 7:30 PM, Sundays 1:00
PM, 6:00 PM. Additional performances April 20 :00 PM, April 23 7:30 PM, April
30 7:30 PM, May 11 2:00 PM.
Tickets: $30 – $40, Students $15, Under 30’s $20
Contact: 801-363-7522
Salt Lake Acting Company
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CONTENT ADVISORY: There is some strong language periodically.
Unfortunate that Ms. Reeve’s image is the sole one to not show in your article.
Hello–
We publish the photos we get from the company.
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FRR Staff