The opening section of Sara Baras’s new work is a wonder. After some atmospheric shapes thrown by her supporting dancers, men and women wearing suits, tilting microphones under conical spotlights, the star herself steps through a beaded curtain and into the limelight. In a slinky, spotty dress she crosses her wrists high above her head and then begins to dance.
She is imperious as she moves, her feet beating out rhythms with heel, ball and toe, so quick they seem impossible, arms in sinuous curves that whip across her body, turning her on her axis. She has extraordinary control of every fierce movement as the geometric shapes of the light in which she stands are cut into softer, more human curves by the sway of her body, the bend of her back. At one moment she is making thunderous sounds; at the next, her footwork fades into absolute soft silence.
