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The Grachel Behalkee Company has its final performance of “Table for Two & Friends” this weekend at the ESL Rochester Fringe Festival. The collection of experimental dances blends juxtaposing emotions to challenge audience reactions.
Rachel Bast and George Mechalke, who founded the company, both had experience in young, competitive dance environments. They found the realm of experimental dance, which challenges traditional forms and mores, a much better fit due to its interdisciplinary approach and lack of fixed interpretation.
The very name of their company speaks to the duo’s sensibilities of playfully breaking tradition and creating metacommentary; Grachel Behalkee is very obviously just the two dancers’ names smashed together.
In fact, the first dance they worked on together while students at the Program of Dance and Movement at the University of Rochester was a portent of what was to come later.
“There was an element of seriousness, grief, and death, followed immediately by some sort of joke, some sort of comedic element that relieves the stress but also plays into that work,” says Mechalke. “The music at the beginning of the piece is very solemn, and we’re being very creepy and crawly. Then the next part of the music happens, and it sounds like you’re at a circus with a lot of jazz hand movement.”
They have keywords in their choreography that similarly evoke whimsy, but combine with the grotesque. For example, there is “the Puking Cat” movement, or a concept they share of “the Creature.”
“It’s our description of how multiple bodies can blend the edges of each other together,” Mehalke explains. “If you were to come to any of our given rehearsals, you could probably hear us call something ‘The Creature.’ Like ‘Will you go into the Creature?’ ‘Okay, let’s get into the Creature shape.’ ‘Let’s start from the Creature.’”
Those contrasting elements intentionally create an uncertain atmosphere, eliciting a range of reactions from the audience. Bast says that after performing “Table for Two,” a duet created by the duo, which gives an inner look into the struggles of a 300-year marriage, viewers inquired about their mental health afterward.
“My mom and I think another student has said this to me afterward, ‘Are you guys OK? Do you need a therapist?’” But, as she puts it, “It’s just fun to be weird on stage. I love being able to expand that and make it even more dramatic and make the audience even more uncomfortable.”
“My roommate was in the audience (for these performances) and said that people were uncertain whether they could laugh or not. I heard from others that people in the audience were laughing while they were having a very emotional and heavier experience,” Mehalke adds. “I really enjoy the idea that someone sitting in the crowd is having a completely different experience than someone sitting next to them.”
“Four Dancers,” a Mehalke creation that was selected for performance at the American College Dance Association Conference, similarly plays with expectation and audience reaction.
The dance touches on the ephemeral and singular nature of performance by announcing at the start, genuinely, that the dancers have not rehearsed the piece before.
However, audience members are often still left wondering about its truthfulness.
“A lot of people don’t believe that it’s real. Which is perfect, I love that,” Mehalke says. “And I think the ultimate question that should come from that is ‘Was it real?’ but further, ‘What is real?’”
Grachel Behalkee’s Fringe show will also feature works from other current and former UR students, Catherine Malone and Ezra Tock, who created “Entangling” and “Leftovers,” with Aubrey Lanham, Stella Lempert, Addie Oracion, Doreen Prempeh, Fiora Schnell, and Ava Stern as other performers. Another of Bast’s pieces, “Hello! My Name Is…,” is also a part of the show.
“Table for Two & Friends” will have its final performance Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m. at the Rose Room. Tickets can be purchased online for $20.
Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.
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