Stopping Traffic

review by Tammy Nguyen

03/14/17

Bodytraffic at the ICA

            Bodytraffic left the audience in awe at the end of the show. They performed at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston on Friday night and did not fail to show their impressive techniques and creativity.

            There were four separate pieces and each piece only had from two to seven dancers. Even with such a small amount of dancers, the pieces were lively and at times powerful. The first piece, called The New 45, is a charming duet with a man and a woman dancing to upbeat jazz music. It was whimsical with a lot of fast hands and feet movements - different from most contemporary pieces I’ve seen. Throughout the whole show, Bodytraffic made the audience marvel at their agility, their smooth floor work, their strength, and the humor in the backstory of the piece. The pieces were very physically demanding but they kept their momentum from start to end, which makes people who haven’t had experience with dance appreciate what the human body can do.

            The most interesting piece was the second piece called Private Games: Chapter One, choreographed by Anton Lachky, a Slovakian dancer. The right word to use to describe the piece is freaky. Freaky but incredibly engaging as it escalates and deescalates. There were a lot of continuous spinning and contortion of the body and a lot of grace and elegance.