Nora Paul

Three dancers stand far upstage, lit by dim lights and with their backs to the audience. To their left, three dancers lay on their sides. As the upstage dancers slowly—joined step for step—turn to face front, the dancers on the floor sit up to reveal that their faces are covered by their jackets’ hoods. Center stage, a dancer pulls hers down to finally reveal her face.

Behind a time stamp with the date “20 02 2001,” a line of blurred lights shudders. Overlaid, as if from a composite of two photos, a woman’s face appears. So does a camera. Voices are matched to these reflections against the glass. The glass door slides open, revealing the lights in the night.

The low rumble of the double bass slides up and down with the rise and fall of a tumult of waves to begin the piece. The dancers’ movements manifest a calm sea, storms, and the ebb and flow of the tide. Water’s qualities take on a form that parallels the evolution and modulation of human relationships—waves that are external as well as within oneself. Moonwater Dance Project is an all-female-identifying Chicago-based contemporary dance company that was established in 2018.