In the bucolic setting of a Springs garden, a two-part modern dance performance is to be held on Saturday at 5 p.m. “Green Afternoon,” the initial cocktail-hour segment, “qualifies as a quasi-choose-your-own-adventure,” said the event’s choreographer and director, Amanda Selwyn. “Make your own experience as an audience member. You could come with a friend, and you two can wander around and see something totally different based on where you choose to go.”
Upon arrival, guests will encounter a display of dance phrases through which they may meander at leisure. “We have dancers all over the woods,” Ms. Selwyn said. “You’ll wander into a little area, and there will be a dancer doing what I call ‘movement installations,’ all around the property. They’re movement meditations on an image, an idea, a motif — something from the greater work that we’re going to present afterward on the lawn.”
The outdoor setting, she said, while sometimes physically challenging, lends spontaneous beauty to the experience. “The lighting is nature’s light. We’re in nature. It’s definitely more challenging than performing in an indoor, climate-controlled venue. What we have to do is be adaptable.”
Once seated, guests will be treated to an excerpt from the Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre’s recent world premiere, “Habit Formed,” the choreographed portion of the performance, which riffs and plays with concepts and images from the first half. “You might not realize it,” Ms. Selwyn explained, “but you might first see a duet against a tree, or see a dancer moving through the gardens, and then later, you’ll see it in a more structured, choreographed idea.”
“Habit Formed,” she said, explores the idea of habits in people’s lives; habits that can create freedom or can create restriction. “When we develop healthy habits, we work toward them, because it creates a lot more simplicity in our lives and allows us to move toward our goals. At the same time, habits can also create a sense of being imprisoned by certain behaviors.”
Expressive gestures and precise repetition are signatures of the Selwyn Dance Theatre style. “You can see my mathematical brain,” said the director. “I really do love patterns and sequences; I think they are very satisfying. Once we come up with a strong movement motif, you’re going to see it in a million different ways over the course of the evening. I feel that is how we receive ideas, just like habits. Habits are things we do on repetition.”
The dancers’ costumes, she said, have had to be adapted to their specialized setting. “We try to find something that’s not going to get stuck in the bushes, but also something that’s going to respond well, color-palette-wise, to the background of all the flowers,” Ms. Selwyn said. “We play with different looks every year and see what is going to complement the surroundings.”
“I think a lot of the audience members end up composing their own stories as they’re watching the piece, because of the ways that the dancers connect with each other and the audience. It’s not just shape, line, and form. It’s shape, line, form, and a lot of athletic movement. On top of that, there is this whole emotional arc.”
“This is a chance to see a garden, have a cocktail, meet some interesting people, and see a performance all in one,” she concluded. “It’s a really unique and special event.”
The performance will take place at the home of Marcia Previti and Peter Gumpel at 230 Old Stone Highway in Springs. Tickets are $150 and can be bought at amandaselwyn.org.
