As part of Chicago Artists Month, Hedwig Dances reprises company member Victor Alexander’s “Line of Sighs,” a luscious meditation on human connection conceived during a fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council in 2012. Alexander collaborated with set and costume designer Deborah Valoma on a set of both elegant simplicity and infinite complexity. A series of white elastic cords stretch across the performance area from head-height to floor level, creating a third plane that ties horizontal to vertical, intensifying the visual sense of both gravity and transcendence as six dancers weave patterns into space. Internal elasticity is magnified by the radiating bungees—which also serve as part of the score, their whispers when un-stretched whisking through the soundscape of clacking loom and gentle, mystical score by Arianne Brame. The work is one of both powerful, grounded athleticism and supreme, etherial tenderness. The up-close, same-level setting of Defibrillator Gallery should only heighten the intimacy of a dance that truly does rope one in. (Sharon Hoyer)
At Defibrillator Performance Art Gallery, 1463 West Chicago, Thursday, November 12 at 6pm and 7:30pm. $10 suggested donation.
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