By Steve Sucato

Mythology and technology take center stage in Case Western Reserve University’s (CWRU) Department of Dance’s fall production, Voyages. 

Running November 1-9, 2024, at the University’s Mather Dance Center, Voyages includes two new dance works plus reprises from last year of Martha Graham’s modern dance masterwork, “Cave of the Heart,” and Department of Dance chair Karen Potter’s aerial silks duet, “Into the Wind.” 

Cutting-edge technology is featured in Professor Gary Galbraith’s latest work, “Quest,” for CWRU’s student dancers. For it, Galbraith revisits the use of Microsoft’s HoloLens mixed reality technology, which he first introduced to Cleveland audiences in 2017 with his “extended reality” dance work “Imagined Odyssey.” 

Galbraith, a former principal dancer with the legacy dance troupe Martha Graham Dance Company, which he describes as “a Bastion of 20th-century purism,” sees his current pension for making technology-infused dance works as a marked difference in his career but one with a certain inevitability.

“I was in this unique situation of being in a research university in dance, and it was an opportunity to investigate and try new technologies,” says Galbraith. “The rest is history.”

A sequel to “Imagined Odyssey,” “Quest” is the second part of Galbraith’s dance interpretation of The Popol Vuh, a Mayan creation myth that tells the story of how the world and humanity came to be and how Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, were transformed into the Sun and the Moon.

The 20-minute contemporary dance work is set to an original surround sound score by award-winning composer Gabriel Jon Griswold, a German-born composer who formerly lived in Cleveland. Eight live-action dancers play characters in this world of dark lords, fireflies, and holographic environments.

In addition to using HoloLens technology, which will require audience members to wear special headsets provided by the University, Galbraith also incorporates the use of 3-D LiDAR location tracking in the piece (the same technology used in self-driving cars). 

The second premiere work on the program, CWRU dance faculty member Richard Oaxaca’s 9-minute “Rooted…Rising” was inspired by another mythological archetype, the Tree of Life. 

Set to music by composers Giya Kancheli and Philip Glass, a cast of 13 dancers embody the forces of life, connection, and the cyclical nature of existence.

Using another form of technology to leave the confines of the stage, the return of Potter’s “Into the Wind” from last November uses aerial silks to transport the audience into a world where the boundaries between earth and sky blur. 

Says Potter: “I was inspired by reconnecting with one of my first students from Texas in the mid-70s, Cherie Carson, who founded and directed Upswing Aerial in Berkeley, California. I wanted to do something I’d never explored before, and though I’m not an aerial artist, the two dancers I wanted to create for are experienced in the genre and were willing to collaborate with me.”

The 10 ½ minute duet is Potter’s 15th work for CWRU’s dancers in her 24 years at the university.

Closing out Voyages mythological offerings is a reprise of Graham’s “Cave of the Heart” (1946).

A one-act psychological study of the destructive power of love and the dark passions that lurk in the human heart. The 28-minute ballet for four dancers is set to music by Samuel Barber and is loosely based on the ancient Greek myth of Medea, a sorceress who is consumed by jealousy when her husband abandons her. 

Adding to the richness of this modern dance classic are the original 1946 modern art set pieces by Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi.

Case Western Reserve University’s Department of Dance performs Voyages, 7 p.m., November 1, 2, 6-9 & 2:30 p.m., November 3; Mather Dance Center, 11040 Bellflower Road, on the Case Western Reserve campus in University Circle. Tickets are $15 for CWRU students with ID, $20 for seniors age 60+, CWRU personnel, and non-CWRU students, and $25 for general admission. For reservations, call (216) 368-5246 or visit https://case.edu/artsci/dance/news-and-events/ticket-reservations.