David Dorfman Dance: Come, and Back Again
David Dorfman Dance
Due to a soccer game, we expect parking to be difficult on the evening of Friday, November 1. Please allow extra travel time and plan on arriving early.
Event Attributes
Few topics seem to be out of bounds for choreographer David Dorfman. In more than 25 years of dance-making, he has investigated all manner of subjects, from the nature of athleticism to the big ideas that define our humanity. Despite the serious nature of these inquiries, his dances are alive with humor and the unbridled joy of movement.
Come, and Back Again is an exploration of vulnerability, mortality and the virtuosity required to live daily life. Driven by the charged poetry and unapologetic, raw ferocity of the underground '90s Atlanta band Smoke, five dancers and five musicians embark on a kinetic anthem of reckless personal abandon, exploring how time and memory influence and define our slippery, elastic existence. The members of the live band will inhabit the stage with the dancers, which includes Dorfman playing the roles of both dancer and saxophonist.
David Dorfman says, “Come, and Back Again has been a lovely, twisted road of passionate pursuit for me and for the company and collaborators. We began with an adoration of poetic rock and roll as evidenced by Patti Smith among others. We’ve ended up with a dance about mess, joy, loss and survival of love at all costs.”
The presentation of Come, and Back Again was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Review by The Washington Post
In this close-to-epic one-hour meditation, Dorfman revealed his powerful talent for telling a story that is the audience’s story, too. They left the theater in the kind of mood that follows a heart-to-heart with an old, dear friend.
– NORA FITZGERALD, The Washington Post, November 3, 2013
Review by DC Metro Theater Arts
The scarcity of humor in dance probably stems from the age-old belief that dance must be a “serious” art. Of course, it’s also true that comic dance is devilishly hard to create. Fortunately, that hasn’t fazed Dorfman in this musical celebration, more like a frat party with off-the-wall antics and daredevil dancing.
– CAROLYN KELEMEN, DC Metro Theater Arts, November 2, 2013
Preview by The Gazette
Like most of the company’s pieces, Dorfman said the starting point of inspiration for “Come, and Back Again” is not where the dance ended up. The artistic director said the performance began with the music.
“I went back to some other musical roots and looked at the more poetic rock and roll that emerged from the late 1960s and 1970s and it influenced me a lot,” Dorfman said.
– CARA HEDGEPETH, The Gazette, October 31, 2013
Review by the New York Times
The presence of Mr. Dorfman, 57, gives the work more weight. Mortality is clearly on his mind. Moving with his younger dancers, he sometimes lets them continue without him or slowly waves at them, as in parting.…Compulsively flapping his arms, he reflects that being able to “do this forever” would be good and bad.
– BRIAN SEIBERT, New York Times, October 17, 2013
Preview by the New York Times
While Come, and Back Again remains Dorfman-esque, it also departs from his work of the past seven years: more personal than political, more introspective than issue driven, closer to family and home.
– SIOBHAN BURKE, New York Times, October 4, 2013
Review by Critical Dance
Full of truth and generous humor, Dorfman gave us a setting in which we could explore our heartaches and our soaring spirits along with him. Rather like life, quiet was matched with loud volume, and serious moments were followed by laughter. Additionally, the dancing was mixed with healthy doses of poignant and amusing text. While “Come, And Back Again,” dealt with the theme of mortality, it also celebrated living and creating.
– CARMEL MORGAN, Critical Dance, November 1, 2013