Two women begin with motion that is rapid and unrelenting, fearlessly yielding to momentum, whirring limbs about the axis of the spine, then creating new axes and leveraging shared weight to tumble together through space. Their endurance is remarkable. You can hear the sound of impact—flesh to flesh or floor. Though alike in stature and both bold, they are impossible to mistake for one other—each has her own center of gravity and her own texture in space, like neighboring atoms on the periodic table. Kara Brody and Amanda Maraist are the petite but feisty duo of Khecari’s Marginalia, created over a two-and-a-half-year process by Julia Rae Antonick and Jonathan Meyer. In this 65-minute duet, they tussle and toss their (sometimes artificial) hair, swirl, fall, and sweep through space. Maraist places her fingers lightly on Brody’s throat; Brody drags the palm of her hand around Maraist’s neck—the gestures are gentle, yet alarming and incredibly exposed.
Maraist and Brody’s improvisation practice in Marginalia rehearsals eventually prompted them to develop a duet of their own devising, Burrow, Tousle, first presented last year. Whether or not one work is marginalia to the other, the collaborative creativity of these women is front and center. v
Thu 10/24-Sat 10/26, 7 PM, Links Hall at Constellation, 3111 N. Western, 773-281-0824, linkshall.org , $25-$100.
