i get lost: An Evening of Solos by Judith Sanchez Ruíz and Souleymane Badolo
Danspace Project
Through Feb 6.

With “i get lost: An Evening of Solos by Judith Sanchez Ruíz and Souleymane Badolo,” Ralph Lemon as curator introduces two distinct black artist voices that work together to create a complete harmony. The contrasting aesthetics of the two works are unified thematically through the use by both performers of text about identity that is recited in more than one language.

Sanchez Ruíz embodies the yin, the feminine, and the sleepless night, in “And They Forgot to Love.” Dressed in black lace and dancing in silence, or the sounds of her own heavy exhalations, she is the beautiful dancer. Her movements are delicate and supple, and even when she jumps, her arms are curved, her lines clean.  But, in the beginning, standing vulnerable in the quiet space with her dress top pulled down, we can see her breasts and torso are covered with masking tape in a careless manner, transmitting an oppression, a tugging of the body that holds this beauty back and silences its music. Near the end, recorded voices in Spanish and some English filter in. Born in Cuba, and a now a former dancer with Trisha Brown, Ruiz worries about her identity as a woman and as a dancer.

In “Yaado,” by contrast, Souleymane Badolo, is yang—hard, solid, and focused. Dressed in a white shirt, which he removes soon after the beginning, and a white wrapped skirt, he is the survivor, engaging with the ancestors. He speaks in French, the colonial language of his country Burkina Faso, and later in his tribal tongue. His actions are ritualistic: he kneels on a piece of fabric, bows down and reaches forward, rapping the floor with quick rotations of his wrists; with one arm snaking upward and his body weighing downward, he undulates his torso, entranced; he slaps his elbows rhythmically into his ribcage. Later, dancing to live music, (Diabate Youb playing the kora and Kanoté Mamadou beating a small two-sided drum), Badolo hops vigorously from one leg to another, slamming the opposing knee upward into his armpit. After a few iterations, he doubles the effort, bringing both knees into contact simultaneously in one aggressive thrust upward. In this charismatic and extremely physical performance, Badolo invokes the past and finds a great source of inner power.