Austinist Dance Review: Sally Jacques' Requiem

Ever since we landed here ‘bout 2 years back, we’ve been learning to embrace the “Austin performance aesthetic”. Equal parts inventive, amateurish, stunningly innovative and incessantly DIY, the scene here is about what you’d expect from a young, well-supported performance community in a rapidly growing city. We think it’s great. We love the energy. We dig the friendly, open vibe. But sometimes we yearn for work that’s not so obsessively frenetic. We want to see performance that feels less like the needy, acerbic assertions of a twentysomething, and more like the quietly confident statement of a seasoned artist.

In Sally Jacques’ Requiem, we found such a piece. Placed on the infamous eyesore (and soon to be demolished) “Intel Shell” at 4th and San Antonio, the piece played against the backdrop of the night sky. This connection to seemingly infinite space allowed the quality in Jacques’ work that, in productions past has seemed ever-so-slightly self-important, to feel wholly justified in its insistence that we were watching something magnificent. Quietly epic, and subtly moving, this visually stunning site-specific work kept us solidly engaged from beginning to end.

But that’s not because of the “dance”, per se. Though Jacques is billed as a choreographer, this is actually Requiem’s weakest link. Compared to the incredible use of space, strong aerial work, and beautifully orchestrated design, most of the movement feels – in artist speak – like “first choices”. In essence, the first thing that pops into your head, instead of a thoroughly investigated, well-explored expression of your meaning.