HQ Review: Karlovsky and Company Dance presents SHIFTING TIME

One step. The unfolding of a toe. The releasing of breath as sand spills over. Time undulates. Bodies convulse. Kinner releases her grasp. Orion speaks into microphone. Schenkein supports the torso. Shreds of paper confound. Time and its precious nature. Time and its inevitable plight. We are not infinite creatures. Yet we transmute through space regardless. Disparate moments coagulate into a whole. “Shifting Time,” choreographed by Dawn Karlovsky alongside guest artist Megan Nicely is difficult to parse out into singular moments. But it is in its convolution that this work excels. 

“How to stretch one idea into many different possibilities?” This was a remark by Dawn Karlovsky during the post show Q&A that carried distinct resonance. At times, concert dance attempts to cram a plethora of complex ideas into its making. Yet Karlovsky manages to take the singular concept of time and unravel it into a framework of possibilities. Different sections convey how time is experienced, whether it be through the natural environment, the clock, or the everyday tasks we encounter. The stretching of this concept also reflects the stretching of time itself. By the end of the work, I found myself unsure of how much time had actually passed. What began as singular mundane actions was expanded into an entire livelihood of experience. An experience filled with time’s omnipresence and the continual instability it casts upon our lives.

While many moments in this piece convey time’s unstable presence, a duet between Sam Schenkein and Ramona Orion stands out amongst the beautiful decay of it all. This scene begins with Orion lodged upside down on Schenkein’s shoulder with a statuesque composure, while Tayler Kinner holds on to Schenkein’s ankles as though he is dragging her through the dirt. While they slowly make their way through space, Orion speaks into a microphone, recounting her very exacting morning routine, citing down to the very minute how she would execute it. While obviously connecting to time in this instance, the literalness of the speech stood in stark contrast to much of the evening’s more abstract meanderings. Kinner soon releases her grasp as Orion and Schenkein unfold into a series of topsy turvy partnering shenanigans. Orion is balanced on Schenkein’s back as her limbs fling out, contract, then find momentary stillness once more. Schenkein allows each weight shift to affect how he supports Orion in order to give her a strong base to navigate from. Though this moment of partnering feels risky, their connection to each other is exceptionally present so that there is no doubt that these two are in safe cahoots with each other’s balance.

As the program notes, things like a global pandemic and an escalating climate crisis have upended our experience of time and often forced us to witness our surroundings on earth with greater totality. The proverbial clock continues to tick regardless of how we attempt to escape it. While much on this earth demands us to operate in the highest gear, Shifting Time flips the script and forces us to slow down. And the original sound score by Kalo Hoyle and Tory Starbuck adds exceptional wisdom as to how time mutates through auditory composition. It languishes as bodies walk in near paralysis through space. It melts as a glacier across our skin. It shreds our understanding of temporality. Karlovsky and Company take on the heady concept of time and dial it down so that the totality of time’s existence swallows us like a dream. There is no ending nor beginning. The logic of it is leaky. Yet as we transmute from one scene to the next, the collective experience is jarring. We are not exactly sure what has traversed, but know we have been transported through a black hole of sorts. Yet together, we are still able to come out alive.