The fact that Chey Jury y Akira Yoshida represent us a piece in which the communication between their characters is manifested through a deep work of gesticulation, showed why many physical theater or contemporary dance professionals still have a lot to delve into. I say this more than anything, because one sometimes finds plays in theaters whose capacity for synthesis is enough to make them exemplary, while the rest of the audience watches in astonishment.
Both professionals were balanced by recordings that generated effects similar to slow motion, fast motion and other things like that. The fact is that Chey Jurado and Akira Yoshida put at the service of the assembly and investigation of Milestone, everything that was housed in their respective “toolboxes”. To the point that this, being combined with the sympathetic and sometimes existentialist tone of this piece, led me to think that I was watching a cartoon, not a dance-theater. Which I find absolutely wonderful, fun, and hopeful, for those of us who see various pieces of performing arts every week.
And as if the above were not enough, Chey Jurado and Akira Yoshida exposed us a series of situations between two friends that, thanks to camping, they got to know each other more thoroughly, starting, of course, because it is most likely that they had not shared a similar context. Thus, these professionals unfolded to us, the spectators, a kind of anthology about how one in life does not get to fully know the people who are closest to us. As an example, it is enough to try different plans so that the routine does not “ritualize” our ways of developing the intersubjective relationships in which we regularly develop.
Photo: JC Arevalo
In this line, Chey Jurado and Akira Yoshida moved the public to a place where it did not matter so much if they understood in detail what was happening between the two characters in Milestone, since what they did the most was that we, the viewers, recognized ourselves in the various images that were reproduced on stage, in such a way that each viewer was invited to provide them with more content. Such an undertaking required these two professionals to be clear about what was happening at all times to their corresponding characters, despite the fact that this was not underlined with words within a dialogue and other resources. Even with everything, they did not dispense with anything, rather I would say that even in the type of use they gave to the dialogues, they showed their great skills for directing and creating dramaturgies. That is to say: In the time that each scene and each selected song lasted; If at that moment it was possible to include a danced choreography between the two so that the piece would not become flat, or why not say so, with the idea that Milestone it was not a pretext for the dancers in the game to shine with their acrobatics, their virtuosity…; etc
Anyway, Milestone It is one of the few works that I have seen that have made me wonder if all the super crazy movements like those executed by Chey Jurado and Akira Yoshida with cleanliness and precision, could at a certain moment “distract” the viewer from what they were telling. or on the contrary, they took the piece to a dreamlike and magical place to the everyday scenes they were representing. What I have no doubt about is that Milestone It is one of the works that I have enjoyed seeing the most throughout this 2022-2023 season.. So much so, that it wouldn’t bother me to see her two more times in a row throughout an afternoon in which she had no other occupation to attend to. I suppose this is because those of us who dedicate ourselves to writing about performing arts need, from time to time, to be reminded that analyzing a piece in an “intellectual” way is one more form of enjoyment. Perhaps the key is knowing how to distinguish when it is worth relating concepts and everything we have seen with the piece in play, from when it would be convenient to “let yourself be done”.
Photo: JC Arevalo