MENDOCINO COUNTY, 3/30/25 – On Friday night Mendocino turned out to see the Mendocino Dance Project’s (MDP) newest show, “Surface Tension.”
SA Ephraim, a member of the MDP’s board of directors, told me beforehand that the show would “bring people together and be very thought-provoking.”
I’ll say.
From the get-go the audience was reminded that we live in challenging times, as the dancers, covered head to toe in black body suits against a black curtain on a black floor, used hand-written signs to illustrate the divisions (“Political refugee” “economic refugee” “electric vehicles” “ø lithium mines”) permeating the world outside the theater. The tension increased when the one dancer in street clothes, after literally sweeping things under a rug on stage, lay down on the rug’s surface, only to have it roil up from the agitated movements of the performers hiding underneath.
The seamlessly running show went on without a break as the on-stage world just got worse. At one point Lady Liberty – still in black but readily identifiable with her crown, torch and sash – handed off her accessories to an audience member and walked out. Another dancer took up the gear and used it as a way to entice the others to pin $5 bills on her costume.
It was a little like watching MSNBC news, but way more creative.
Although the costumes made it impossible to identify the individual dancers for most of the show, MDP dancer Kristi Bohlen was in the house as an audience member and summed up the approach: Artistic Director Kara Starkweather asks each dancer to “think about a time when you felt tense and show me that in your body,” Bohlen said. “That’s Kara’s brilliance.”
That and the athleticism and grace of Kara as a dancer herself, and performers Emily Anthony, Priya Birchard, Jessica Curl, Mackenzie Rain and Natalie Thiel brought an emotional response from the audience as the 70-minute production gradually found its way back into the light, and the dancers shed their own darkness to celebrate each other and the possibility of hope.
The audience rose to its feet.
For more information about the Mendocino Dance Project and upcoming events, visit https://mendocinodanceproject.org/.
Congratulations on a great performance . I was inspired by the choreography & the way the dancers brought it to life! Thank-you one & all.