Allison Chase/Performance

An emotional response to the dance performance by Allison Chase/Performance included in the inauguration of the Portland Performing Arts Festival.

-Amazed.  Beautiful imagery that haunts because it is not quite familiar, yet very animalistic.

-Enchanted.  Can bodies really move that way? I want to do that to because it looks so wonderful.

-Aroused Within. Movement so physical on stage that envelopes the audience, we can't sit passively.

-Spellbound. Two dancers hang upside down from a rope. It's hauntingly frightful yet serene.

-Invigorated. Dancers are diving in mid-air and tumbling to the ground with abandonment and strength. Oh to join them and feel the joy of a body moving with sheer physicality and strength.

-Touched. The music, lighting, and staging take the breath away, it's powerful theater.



Dance is a physical art. Gymnastics is a physical sport.  Allison Chase has mastered how to combine dance with sport and make theater of the finest kind. Chase was the co-founder and artistic director of Pilobolus from 1973-2005. In 2008 she established her own company which is based in Brooksville, Maine. The outstandingly powerful dancers  were: Mark Fucik, Jessica Bendig, Stephanie Fungsang, Rachel Kreiling, Ricky Kuperman, Jenna Liberati, Kenneth Stephen Neil, Shane Rutkowki, Jake Szczypek and Rebecca Anderson Darling. She brings all the unusual physicality that Pilobolus pioneered and continues to astound and help audiences experience unique storytelling through dance and the amazing human body.

Allison Chase/Performance - Saturday June 30, 2012 at Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine.