Watch in Wonder: Whim W’him’s Three-in-One Contemporary Show

Whim W’him’s Spring ‘25 left me wonderstruck. The show consisted of three sections, each choreographed by a different artist–Olivier Wevers, Mark Caserta, and Lauren Edson, with Olivier being the founder and artistic director of Whim W’him, a contemporary dance company. The talent of the company’s seven dancers–Jacob Beasley, Owen Fulton, Stella Jacobs, Aliya Janov, Daeyana Moss, Ashley Rivette, and Kyle Sangil–is incredible. From their technique and facial expressions to their execution, they are a treat to view. This show was my very first contemporary dance show, and I was so excited to watch it. Dance is such an expressive and engaging art form, and Whim W’him made my love for it grow. When I left the theater, I felt the need to dance again. 

The first piece, Rituals for the Mother, choreographed by Whim W’him founder and Artistic Director Olivier Wevers, was contemplative, peaceful, and spiritual. The dancers were dressed in deep green long-sleeved shirts and formal pants, and the women wore their hair in tight buns. The music was full of percussion and engaging rhythms. The dancers moved together like waves in the sea: frantic yet calm, curious yet peaceful. There were moments of control, playing, and fighting. Throughout, the dancers continuously tormented one of the male dancers. This dancer was the only dancer who was dressed differently (he wasn’t wearing a shirt). They held him above the ground as he struggled to run away, moving in tandem, keeping him confined. The scene transitions to a rectangular white light on stage while everything else goes dark. There were two men on stage (Beasley and Fulton); the first was the one who was being controlled (Beasley), standing in the light, and the second was one of the controllers, standing in the dark. Sometimes they performed synchronized with identical moves, while other times the man in the dark (Fulton) only watched the man on the inside. The two swapped places several times, changing the dynamic of the scene. At first, it seemed like a mirroring effect, but as they went on, it was more watching and interacting with one another, together or apart. No matter what they did, the light was there, though it occasionally changed angles. At one point, they were both together, then back-to-back and separated, dancing to their own rhythms–but once again, they found each other. 

At the Q&A after the show, an audience member asked about the piece’s meaning, and Wevers responded that the coolest part about this piece is that it is up for interpretation. The audience member told the choreographer that they believed the piece was about particles and them moving as a community or one entity. My interpretation of Rituals for the Mother differs: the audience takes the perspective of a mom, given the title, having a nightmare about her son. She watches him and his love for water when Jacob is playing the drum and the others are dancing like waves, and he is as curious as the waves of the sea as he goes to join them. Then she sees her son go through a tough time in life, where he is the follower in a bad friendship, where Jacob is tormented by the other dancers, where he sees finally having friends, finally dancing with the others, and she sees controlling kids that are unfit to be associated with her son. As he gets older, he takes pride in something about himself as he looks at himself in the mirror but as time goes on, he can’t recognize himself anymore as he changes places with Owen, and he struggles to find himself again but at the end of the piece he does, and she wakes up. 

The second piece, CHAMP by Mark Caserta, was a difficult piece to watch–it was made to share a hard lesson with the world, as the content warning for sexual intimacy and violence in the program informed audience members. Typically, the exploration of themes like these evokes a sense of uneasiness and fear. Despite these feelings, the message of this piece is indeed important, especially for older teenagers and young adults. Rectangles evoking picture frames hanging from the ceiling, depicting the backboard of a basketball hoop, were hung above the stage. The dancers were dressed as athletes with blue leotards and thigh-high socks, knee pads, and baseball caps. The background music was a mix of basketball crowd noises and instrumental beats, which helped transform the setting from the first to the second. I thought it was a fantastic touch to add realistic basketball game audio because it engaged the audience by immersing them in the setting. 

The beginning had dancers warming up, cleaning the court, and getting ready for a game. The lighting was an integral part of the piece, with a blue circle of light visible on the stage floor that was included in the choreography. All configurations of lights changed on the floor as the dancers used subtle movements and acting to tell the story. The dancers continually changed configurations, transitioning from a pair to alone to offstage to a trio. In any configuration, the dancers had many distinct motivations: physical or verbal fights, talking, playing the game, or warming up as a team. Then two male dancers (Beasley and Fulton) started writhing around on the floor on top of one another in a strained manner, and at first, this was extremely uncomfortable. This transitioned to one forcing the other down, and that uncomfortableness turned to anger and sadness. Here, it is understood that CHAMP was about abuse, a hard topic to talk about, let alone dance or act out. The pinned dancer, as confirmed later by the dancers in the Q and A, and I was overwhelmed with fear; I thought about the content that I had seen through social media and movies warning girls about what their freedom would look like. I thought about bullying and violence and how I’ve witnessed both firsthand. I thought about Wevers' words before the beginning of the show, “art is not created out of fear, art is created out of hope,” as much as I think this matches many other forms of art, this piece and fear seemed to be linked. However, even if this piece was created out of fear, I feel that this piece being shown to the world will create change and hope, so that we know that everyone can feel safe and respected. 

After the heaviness of CHAMP, the third piece, My Strange Darling by Lauren Edson, took the audience down a whimsical and creative path. This piece focused on the complications in an unusual relationship between man and artificial intelligence, as portrayed by a life-sized robotic puppet. The dancers worked together to bring this puppet to life and engage with one of the male dancers (Beasley). The two formed a bond like no other; The man fell in love with the robot and danced to jazzy music to convey their love. The bright costumes and set pieces were dated, evocative of 1960s and 70s styles. The dancers took turns being a puppeteer, dancing with the man, and interacting with the robot through dance and acting. When the other dancers meet the robot, it seems as if they will make fun of his relationship with the man, but surprisingly, they love him, and they all end up dancing with one another. 

The dance takes a turn when the man is practicing his ukulele in his house, while unbeknownst to him, the robot is outside flirting with a girl. The two kiss and laugh outside until the man dressed in purple comes over, seeing the betrayal, which is shocking to him. The girl runs off stage, and the robot and man start to fight. Their physical power seems evenly balanced, as the man and robot seemed to throw the other down the same number of times, and because the dancers used pushing away and pulling to replicate a struggle equal to Beasley’s. However, at one point, the man has a moment of realization and detaches the robot’s head to shut it down. After he does this, everyone mourns, taking the robot to the couch as the man dances to Mr. Lonely by Bobby Vinton in a sorrowful way. He put his hands on his head, used close body movements, and had a distressed look on his face, blaming himself. The feeling of knowing somebody but wondering if you know enough about them. At the Q&A at the end of the show, an audience member asked the dancers if they knew the inspiration for the puppet. One of them replied and said that Lauren Edson based the puppet on AI, and she was inspired by a Japanese puppeteer to create the robot-like puppet and its animation through the use of dancers. She attempted to use a larger number of people to operate the puppet, but it became complicated, so they didn’t use everyone at once. The Q&A also revealed that the puppet had many names through its different stages of development, including Edgar Allen Poe. This is an ironic detail given that the robot “died” and Poe spent his life writing with a common theme of death and suffering.

Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with the creativity shown throughout the three pieces. The set designs, costumes, and choreography made each dance unique and a pleasant experience to the viewer's eye. Having a contemporary dance show, which was choreographed by three different choreographers, created a very customized and exhilarating show. Together, these dances showed loss and resilience.

Lead photo: Whim W'him Spring '25. Photo by Jim Coleman.

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