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Boston Globe

David Dorfman Dance looks for peace with ‘truce songs,' at the ICA

The dancers stroll on from various offstage points, help one another remove their backpacks (the baggage we bring), stretch and warm up. Eventually a voiceover announces 'The Battles.' The live score from Sam Crawford and Lizzy de Lise pounds and pulses, throbs and blips, suggests raindrops and falling water. The core group of six dancers hop on the balls of their feet, ready for action. As de Lise wails 'You can't hurt me,' Lily Gelfand and Claudia-Lynn Rightmire push and shove, wrestle and hug, circle each other in a show of intimacy and intimidation. David Dorfman leads the David Dorfman Dance company during their performance of 'truce songs' at the ICA. JOSH REYNOLDS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE The piled-up fabric is unfolded into a long narrow swath and stretched across the stage like a border, on either side of which Advertisement She's still supine when the voiceover announces part two, 'The Players.' Everyone is exaggeratedly polite: 'You'll be most welcome over here.' 'No, over here.' Gelfand gets up and tells us, 'My name is the wind. Tonight I'll be playing the role of . . . the wind.' Rightmire agonizes about memory and time. The dancers are frozen at the back as if they were in a police line-up; then they fall down. Dorfman breaks into a loose-jointed, indefatigable solo much like his threatening one from 'The Battles,' but comic this time. He kicks, shadowboxes, lip-synchs to his own song ' David Dorfman Dance performs 'truce songs' at the ICA, presented by Global Arts Live. JOSH REYNOLDS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE Told that it's 'time to get together and surrender any and all grudges,' everyone lines up to address the audience. Corinne Lohner has the part of 'Surrender'; a giddy Nik Owens plays 'the waiter . . . the one who waits'; Melissa Ellingson is 'the kisser . . . and the kissee.' Jack Blackmon as 'the interrupted' is interrupted by the voiceover announcing part three, 'The Fantasy.' Advertisement It's hardly a fantasy of peace to start. The backpacks are retrieved and everyone's in 'Battle' mode, doing martial exercises. Race and Dorfman reprise their headstand pose, which again collapses. Holding hands, the group flings 'You can't hurt me' back at de Lise, who sings 'You can't escape me' in response. The lighting turns white; the score grinds into a deafening hum. The core of six primp and gush in front of mobile TV cameras, then fall out with one another; Race and Dorfman come to the rescue. Trust and support moves fail; Lohner and Ellingson square off the way Gelfand and Rightmire did earlier. At length that overhead white sheet—the flag of truce?—descends. Squeezed flat on the floor, the dancers crawl out from under as the sheet touches down. They sit on its edge and attach their backpacks to the metal structure, then watch as it slowly rises. All eight dancers stand, walk past one another without taking notice, and exit going their separate ways. The little white square in my hand looks gauzier than ever. 'truce songs' Conceived and directed by David Dorfman. Choreography and text by David Dorfman Dance. Music composed and performed by Sam Crawford and Lizzy de Lise. Performed by David Dorfman Dance. Presented by Global Arts Live. At: Institute of Contemporary Art, Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater, Friday May 16. Remaining performance: May 17. Tickets $51-$55. 617-876-4275, Jeffrey Gantz can be reached at