What happens after the curtain falls?
Contemporary dance company Shaping Sound is exploring that question in its newest show, “After the Curtain,” an “eclectic mash-up” of art forms.
“It has the drama of an opera, the story line of a ballet and the visual magic of Cirque du Soleil,” says Travis Wall, the 29-year-old “So You Think You Can Dance” 2015 Emmy Award-winning choreographer and artistic director of the Shaping Sound Dance Company.
“After the Curtain,” coming to UCLA’s Royce Hall for two consecutive nights beginning June 26, is a tragic love story set in a 1940s cabaret and featuring a commissioned score by Son Lux. It revolves around a director struggling to find his creative voice after the death of his lover, delving into issues of alcohol abuse and homosexuality.
While there are a dozen characters, much of the show takes place in the director’s head through flashbacks.
“It’s a show within a show,” says Wall, who performs the lead role in the narrative dance he has co-created with Nick Lazzarini, Teddy Forance and Kyle Robinson. “He can tell his time is coming to an end so he’s typing his story to the audience because he has a lot of secrets he needs to get off his chest.”
Wall grew up dancing in his mother’s Virginia Beach dance studio, Denise Wall’s Dance Energy. By 9, he got the showbiz bug. At age 12, he packed his bags and moved to New York, by himself, to do “The Music Man” on Broadway.
“My family couldn’t leave Virginia because of the business,” he says, adding his single mother had his four brothers to think about.
Wall, who’s the middle child, returned home injured two years later and started training “hardcore.” Around the same time, he came out as gay to his family, dropped out of high school and began his career in choreography.
“It was the only way I knew how to express myself,” he says, and the rest is history, including the launch of Shaping Sound on the Oxygen channel’s “All the Right Moves.”
Given the nature of their latest show, “After the Curtain” has the potential to attract a range of new audiences.
“Yes, it’s a dance show, but you’re not coming to see concert dance,” Wall says. “You’re watching a silent movie unravel before your eyes on stage.”
