not necessarily the last time i went to see dance...but one performance that has stuck in my mind every since i saw it.

it was by a local Davis, CA company, pamela trokanski.
wow.
completely immersing.

the theme was family abuse.
the movement was so tender, so horrible, so capturing.
loaded with emotional content and expression.

it was done soooo well.
the kind of done well that leaves you walking out of the theater speechless.

in the car afterwards, my partner at the time crawled up into a ball against the window and cried.
he was an abuse survivor.
seeing that dance performance was the closest i think i will ever come to experiencing what it must have been like for him all those years when he was being abused. i felt so incredibly close with him at that moment.

each dancer played a separate aspect of a character. A simple narative of inner conflict between prudery and lusciviousness. But there wasn't the saftey of abstraction. Both dancers played thier parts to such an extent that it was almost over the top and clown like, except this was serious business. It's something that i experience as a improvisational actor and have been interested in incorporating in dance.