"Beyond"
Eisenhower Dance Detroit
Detroit Film Theatre, DIA
Detroit
April 9, 2026
Eisenhower Dance Detroit’s 35th-season closing performance embraced the eerie side of contemporary dance with “Beyond.”
The three-work program opened with “Take Back,” choreographed by Eisenhower Dance Detroit Artistic Director Stephanie Pizzo. It was a solid work, but the world premieres of “Ongaeshi: The Debt of Feathers,” by Japanese choreographer Yoshito Sakuraba, and “I Am Not Myself” by Maxine Doyle brought the most drama – and sometimes head-scratching – of the evening.
“Ongaeshi” was an interpretation of the Japanese folktale “The Grateful Crane.” The story recounts how a poor man rescues an injured crane, then soon after marries a mysterious woman who lifts them out of poverty by weaving and selling an intricate fabric. The fabric can only be made on condition he doesn’t watch. When he breaks that rule – learning the woman is actually the rescued crane who has been plucking her own feathers for the fabric – the trust is broken and the wife leaves.
The piece was not an explicit retelling of the story, although it was interspersed with animated video to convey it, which was not always clear, especially to an American audience unfamiliar with the tale. What was clear were the emotions expressed by the dancers, which ranged from anguish, to joy, to anger to haunting performed to corresponding music, including a portion with a live on-stage banjo. The movement – like the matching emotions – was also diverse, ranging from graceful lifts to twerking. I loved the costumes, shimmering, two-piece white ensembles with vibrant red socks, which created a picturesque yet contrasting image of purity and death on the stage.
Dance expresses emotion and ideas through movement, rarely through talking. “Ongaeshi” did include a short dialogue between the married couple in a lover’s spat, both feeling betrayed as the wife/crane took her exit. Part of me appreciated the explicit clarification of what was happening in the story. A larger part of me felt it was too direct and out of place, removing some of the mystery from the experience. I would, however, have appreciated a short version of the folktale in the program (not Googling afterward) to offer more context while watching the piece.
“I Am Not Myself” took us in a different journey into the weird and disturbing. It was inspired by the lyrics of UK artist Ren’s “Hi Ren,” about the singer’s battle with his demonic alter ego. Black suit-clad dancers opened behind a wide, waist-high black box, which was used as a central prop throughout the piece. Dancers used the upper portions of their bodies to move along the top, including some cool shoulder moves and conveyor-belt style choreography reminiscent of the comedic escalator-behind-the couch illusion. It was interesting at first but eventually got tedious – especially since the black costumes, behind a black box in front of a black curtain with dim lighting offered little visual interest elsewhere.
The slow vibes eventually gave way into something much more intense. The box – now broken up into smaller boxes – turned to reveal mirrored, hollow interiors, each containing a deranged-looking female dancer. The girls wore tutus, neon bobbed wigs and glassy masks, giving the effect of being either mannequins or the sex workers you’d find on display in the windows of Amsterdam’s red-light district. Paired with the haunting music, the dim lighting and their creepy smiles, the effect was borderline terrifying. Eventually the piece landed on an eerier vibe, with lead dancer Alex Hlavaty pushing the boxes back and forth around the stage with other dancers.
Doyle was the choreographer for Punchdrunk, creators of the award-winning “Sleep No More” immersive theater experience, where masked participants follow different actors around a transformed historic hotel for an interpretation of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” I experienced the show in 2019 and loved it. While I didn’t see much of the most dramatic actions in the path I followed, I enjoyed the overall mysterious, unnerving feeling of the evening, which was similar to that of “I Am Not Myself.”
While not every part of “Beyond” landed for me, the dancers masterfully executed the wide range of ideas presented throughout the program both technically and artistically. Contemporary/modern dance is often hit or miss for me, especially when it ventures beyond pure aesthetic into the weird. I admire Eisenhower for taking risks, even if I still prefer the softer, more traditionally pretty works I’ve seen from them in the past.
