{"id":60929,"date":"2021-11-27T10:44:07","date_gmt":"2021-11-27T16:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=60929"},"modified":"2021-11-29T11:26:42","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T17:26:42","slug":"like-a-dream-junction-dance-companys-hypnopompic-doesnt-always-cohere-as-a-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/like-a-dream-junction-dance-companys-hypnopompic-doesnt-always-cohere-as-a-narrative\/","title":{"rendered":"Like a Dream, Junction Dance Company’s “Hypnopompic” Doesn’t Always Cohere as a Narrative"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h4>\n
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Lydia Forsgren as Roya (center) in Junction Dancy Company’s “Hypnopompic”<\/p><\/div>\n

This past weekend (Nov. 19-21), Junction Dance Company<\/a> director Megan Adelsberger welcomed the audience to their first show of the season. The program notes explained the symbolism of each character in the show and gave a storyline synopsis and a definition of the show\u2019s title: Hypnopompic. <\/em>The \u201chypnopompic\u201d is the state of consciousness leading out of sleep \u2014 we were about to be taken on a journey through the subconscious by dance.<\/h4>\n

In a bed in the upper left corner of the stage, we see soloist Lydia Forsgren (who portrays Roya) for the first time. She lays there while a projection of her is shown above. Forsgren\u2019s moves matched the music perfectly. She never missed a beat, while showing off flexibility and clean lines.<\/h4>\n

After the opening number, the audience began to understand the work\u2019s relationship to the hypnopompic. Roya\u2019s dreams would include multiple characters: \u201cThe Sand Sweepers\u201d were first, a projected night sky giving us more context than the movement alone provided. Inspired by Neil Gaiman\u2019s \u201cThe Sandman,\u201d these young women created circular visuals as though they were casting a spell on Roya. Seamlessly, they whisked both Roya and her bed offstage to make room for the next stage of dreaming. \u201cEhno & The Protectors\u201d were next with sharp, staccato movement. They flew through the air and mixed dance with difficult tricks. I had to reach for the program to remember what Ehno represented \u2014 he was a protector, but could also be representative of Roya \u201cputting up a wall.\u201d<\/h4>\n

As the show went on, the audience was introduced to other characters, such as Bastet, Daryah and Ghadra. Costuming and projections helped me to understand exactly who these characters were. Bastet (Junction dancer Allison Wright) represents Roya\u2019s feminine side. As a \u201cLady Leopard,\u201d she was fierce and feminine, her group’s movement was clean and cute. Ghadra the Gorilla (Josh Curtis) came in next. While the rest of the gorillas danced behind, Curtis and Forsgren had a duet and finally established the relationship I had been waiting the whole show to see.<\/h4>\n

After Ghadra came Daryah (Alyssa Pena<\/span>). She was the first soloist since the beginning of the show, and it was great to see something more than unison. Daryah\u2019s movements flowed one into the next and there was breath in everything she did, she hit every beat and moved like a dolphin.<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Alyssa Pena as Daryah<\/p><\/div>\n

During intermission, discussions of how Roya and the other dancers related to each other ran through my brain. It was difficult to understand what were her dreams and what were just unrelated dances. Roya herself was only seen interacting with others in four out of eleven pieces in the first half of the show. Hoping the second half would bring more cohesion, I watched the curtain bring us back into the hypnopompic state. We would see Roya interact with all of Junction\u2019s main members in both duets and large unison.<\/h4>\n

There\u2019s no denying that these dancers are trained well and are all extremely talented. Junction stands out in that they know how to work the crowd, as well as boasting excellent costumes and music. Cheers arose from the crowd throughout the show, creating a loving and supportive atmosphere. When it comes to storyline, I am unsure where I stand. After one more duet between Ghadra and Roya, I was left wondering whether Ghadra represented something good or evil. I also wondered whether he was only a part of her dreams or if there was a stronger relationship between them in real life. His symbology and the notes about him from the program failed to bring more clarity. Overall, the production relied too heavily on costuming and projections to tell the story. Without these elements, the movement and facial expressions didn\u2019t cohere \u2014 only showing off what the dancers could do, not how their characters might interact. Junction needed to dive deeper into narrative and character development. Hypnopompic <\/em>was fantastic and unique, but in the end, it slightly missed the mark.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

This article is published in collaboration with loveDANCEmore.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past weekend (Nov. 19-21), Junction Dance Company director Megan Adelsberger welcomed the audience to their first show of the season. The program notes explained the symbolism of each character in the show and gave a storyline synopsis and a definition of the show\u2019s title: Hypnopompic. The \u201chypnopompic\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1698,"featured_media":60930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/roya.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-29 09:32:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1698"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60933,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60929\/revisions\/60933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}