If you think ballet is all about princes, princesses and mystical happenings in enchanted lands, the emotional grit and cutting-edge choreography, music and video art of Columbus Dance Theatre’s Experiment 2: An Immersive Art Experience might change your mind.
“My goal is to take dance out of the norms,” said Columbus Dance Theatre Artistic Director Seth Wilson.
The Columbus Dance Theatre will present a multisensory feast of contemporary dance, music and video art projections by Columbus artist Tod Seitz in Experiment 2: An Immersive Art Experience, Friday, Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. at the J. Nick Marzella Family Theater, 592 E. Main Street, Columbus.
The upcoming performances mark a reprise of Experiment 2, which Columbus Dance Theatre premiered in April 2024 to a sold-out theater. The work’s choreographers, Wilson and Columbus Dance Theatre Executive Director Jaime Kotrba Wilson, said strong audience feedback after last year’s performances prompted them to present Experiment 2 again this year.
“It was interesting to hear (audience members’) perspectives,” said Kotrba Wilson. “Sometimes they weren’t even sure what they were feeling. Their energy coming out of the performance was pretty awesome to experience as choreographers.”
Columbus Dance Theatre’s Experiment series began in 2022 with Experiment 1. Wilson, the work’s sole choreographer, says he combined his choreography with music and spoken word “to tell a story through dance.”
Wilson and Kotrba Wilson together created a new program for Experiment 2, which joins their choreography with selections from Cristóbal Tapia de Veer’s music for the television series Utopia. Experiment 2 steps away from the ethereal storytelling and magical characters of so many classical ballets and, instead, presents a raw portrayal of human relationships.
“In today's world we are developing connections and relationships more artificially, with social media, technology, AI. We sit around and are stimulated by these things, losing human connection, stimulating a quick rush of dopamine. And when we don't have that, we have depression and a feeling of isolation. There is a false sense of global connection – our tangible touch is of screens and not skin and human interaction,” Wilson said.
The choreography blends of classical ballet technique – the women dance in pointe shoes – and influences drawn from modern and jazz dance styles. The range of interactions among the dancers suggests a reassessment of relational space and intimacy.
“There’s such a human aspect of the work. Each of the dancers is a human, a person, an artist, a being,” said Kotrba Wilson. “Because, too, our black box theater space is so small, the dancers are so close to the audience, you can see everything – the dancers’ faces, feelings, emotions. It’s so tangible, in a way, to see and to feel the work.”
The music and dancing are wrapped in a visual digital collage created by Tod Seitz and projected into the theater space.
“I wanted to create visuals that would dance with the dancers,” Seitz said. “Dancing textures are projected on masterful choreography by the dancers, and it creates a truly unique performance blending human movements with colors, textures and geometry.”
While choreographing Experiment 2, Kotrba Wilson says she and Wilson gave each other freedom to explore their unique voices as storytellers in dance, and to give expression to their ideas.
“Two separate people always have two different voices. So, I thought that with Experiment 2, it was an interesting experiment in having each of us come and work together to create something from our own perspectives and our own ideas,” Kotrba Wilson said.
Wilson and Kotrba Wilson aim to extend the Columbus Dance Theatre’s Experiment series beyond Experiment 2, and to continue connecting with audiences through the power of art forms brought together.
“We want to get people who don’t normally go and see dance, to see dance, to see contemporary ballet,” Wilson said. “We want to draw in people who would never think to go to a ballet and be like, wow, that was inspiring.”
The Columbus Dance Theatre performs Experiment 2: An Immersive Art Experience Friday, Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. at the J. Nick Marzella Family Theater, 592 E. Main Street, Columbus.
