The Sydney Dance Company gave many St. Louisans a wild ride of ups and downs on an emotional roller coaster called Salome. Dance St. Louis and Firstar Bank have sponsored several other productions at the Fox Theater this season. Salome comes to us as a production, that exhibits primarily modern dance and a tiny dash of more classic forms of dance.

To those who are not familiar with the style, it may seem pretty unusual. However, modern dance began as a movement to split from the strict confinements of traditional ballet. It freed dancers of their pointe shoes, tutu costumes and emotionless faces. In modern dance, emotion is free-spirited and portrayed through every aspect of the dancer’s movements. Nothing is left unexplored.

Costume, choreography of movements, dimensions of space explored through those movements, individuality of each dancer, music and silence come together to give the viewer an amazing experience. Each evokes emotions such as happiness, sadness, loneliness, lust and hate to name a few.

Back in the Fox, the lights dimmed and the ride began as the howl of wind filled the room. Soon after, mahogany-cloaked dancers banged on gongs and crept their way to the stage in a processional. Next, a spectacular display of lights reached out and captivated the audience. John the Baptist (Josef Brown) entered for a dazzling solo. Light shined directly above his giant frame seemingly enlarging him. He distorted himself into various positions. On three limbs he dwarfed himself to one-third of his size and slid, flipped and twirled, hugging the floor of the stage like a monkey.

Later, other dancers continued the incredible performance based on the biblical tragedy of a dysfunctional family. Probably selected for his evil qualities, the tiny, conniving Bradley Chatfield played the role of Herod, stepfather of Princess Salome. As king, he took advantages of his royal privileges, killed his brother and then married his brother’s widow. He also imprisoned John the Baptist. But when his wife, Herodias, and Salome take interest in John, Herod gets jealous.

In his duet with Herodius, he further helped to show the various techniques of modern dance. Their duet did not explore the high and low spaces, as John’s solo had in the beginning of the performance. Instead, they ran and chased each other across the floor.

But when the magnetism of their energies, as explored in modern styles, brought them back eye to eye, the struggle of power continued in a display of flailing hands, feet and leg movements. Salome’s duet with John topped her earlier solo. Through their dance, John freed himself of restraints. The anguish he experienced from the necessity to distance himself from Salome hit the audience at full impact. Her obsession with John mesmerized the audience and the jumps and lulls of the live instrumental music intensified it.

Their duet displayed an amazing feat of balance, grace and strength. She climbed from his hamstrings to the top of his shoulder, and soared into the sky, dangling from an invisible cord on her ride to the height of contentment. However, to her disappointment, John denies her earthly intrigue. Salome’s rage leads to the tragic finale of the performance.