H2 Dance Company challenges audiences with thought-provoking fall performances

The H2 Dance Company’s fall show leaves audiences with much to ponder.

Audience members who expect a dance recital, where point-perfect dancers in tutus and ballet slippers gracefully execute their routines one after another, might leave disappointed after the first act, a precise tap number featuring four female dancers moving to captivating Latin rhythms.

The next two pieces are evocative. Both exhibit artistry and showcase tremendous athleticism, but they are intended to provoke thought. You’ll see superior dancing, but at times it might not be pleasant to watch.

H2 is affiliated with the dance department at Hope College. Its fall show will be repeated Nov. 6 and 7 at the Knickerbocker Theater, 86 E. Eighth St., Holland, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 for regular admission; $10 for senior citizens, Hope faculty and staff; $5 for children ages 12-18, and free for Hope students with their college ID and children younger than 11. Previous performances were held Oct. 30 and 31.

Frenzied motion

Following the tap dance is a contemporary dance piece titled The Illuminator, which was choreographed by renowned guest teaching artist Aaron Samuel Davis in collaboration with 12 female dancers in the company, all wearing casual clothes in earth tones.

If there was a storyline in the piece, it was not illuminated. There was no music and almost no dialogue. It had only a “soundscape” of piercing techno tones, howling, huffing, screams, and banging.

The dancers sometimes pulsed as a single blob emerging from primordial ooze. They took turns asserting independent moves before joining hands to form a circle, then softened into a straight line that whipped across the stage.

The dancing seemed frenetic. The dozen dancers all had long manes and were jerking their heads furiously so their tresses would take flight during periods of writhing, convulsing, and shackling. I turned to my companion and whispered, “I hope there’s a chiropractor waiting in the wings.” And I meant it.

It seemed a relief when the roar of an unseen freight train smothered what may have been intended as a riot. A calmer dance began that included gestures resembling an anointing, but it was subtle and easy to miss on the dimly lit stage where much mayhem had just ensued.

Examining gender roles

The second half of the show is a world premiere dance theater piece titled A Woman’s Place. This 53-minute act provides an in utero-through-marriage exploration of a century’s worth of gender-prescribed ideals and expectations mostly for American women, but also for their husbands.

The conclusion: There’s way too much pressure, and the sexes must work together to achieve equity.

A Woman’s Place is easier to understand, and more enjoyable to watch, than The Illuminator. Dancers perform to a recorded audio track that includes discernible language and a few recognizable famous voices pulled from archival interviews.

There’s even pleasingly familiar music, including I Only Have Eyes for You, made popular by the doo-wop group the Flamingos, and Do Right Woman, Do Right Man by the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin.

The stage looked feminine, with female dancers in 1950s-style dresses with full skirts, all in pastel colors. There were plastic chairs in spring colors to match.

All 16 women in the company, including understudies, performed in A Woman’s Place. At the Oct. 30 performance, Natalie Richards performed “Do Right Woman,” Makayla Henline performed “Housewife,” and Halen White performed “What Is a Girl.” Emerson Douma and Makenna Iverson partnered in “Invisible Labor,” a duet toward the end of the piece.

A Woman’s Place also worked the company’s sole male dancer hard. Colin Van Soest was excellent in his near-cardiac arrest portrayal of an overburdened husband and father in a dance called It’s a Man’s World.

The comedic highlight was not one but two pieces about housework. Anyone who smiles while professing to enjoy cleaning is undoubtedly a paid actress in a detergent commercial, promises a recording of Carol Channing.

The most provocative piece is a corset dance, where dancers retreat into the shadows of the stage and shed their full skirts into a colorful heap. One dancer, who appears to be naked, ascends to center stage in a joyful dance of triumph. She is wearing a skin-tone body leotard and only appears to be nude.

Choreographers of A Woman’s Place are H2 Dance Company artistic directors Kara Brems and Jasmine Mejia. Ray Tadio also serves as an artistic director.

The company plans to reprise A Woman’s Place in August 2027 in Scotland at Edinburgh Fringe, which is billed as the world’s largest open-access arts and cultural festival.

Photos by Ray Nard Imagemaker. Both photos and video courtesy of the H2 Dance Company