Looks Like Sounds Like
Philadelphia, 2020
"Asya Zlatina and Sean Thomas Boyt were among Philadelphia’s most innovative dance artists before the pandemic, and their 2020 Fringe Festival entries demonstrate their ability to keep creating in new and different ways. Combining movement with technology, sound, and collaboration, #Quarantineksvkhvkhkdvhai and Looks Like Sounds Like—from Artist House/Asya Zlatina & Dancers and stb x at, respectively—are two different yet complementary pieces well worth seeing.
stb x at is Boyt’s collaboration with percussionist Andy Thierauf. For the past eight years, the duo has collaborated on work that transcends discipline and genre. Their devotion to experimentation lends itself to Boyt’s rejection of dance’s gender norms—a graceful dancer with elegant limbs, he often performs wearing a dress. Looks Like Sounds Like is an improvisation, and a full-length piece, which feels like a treat these days. Longer dances were not unusual pre-pandemic, but ongoing closures make it tough for artists to develop, rehearse, stage, and perform them.
Filmed onstage in a theater without an audience and streaming on the artists’ website, Looks Like Sounds Like captures the current state of the performing arts. The last of its three scenes was a standout, with red lights illuminating Thierauf as he played piercing notes on a marimba while Boyt entered by rolling across the stage in a white dress with a gauzy underskirt. As the red lights turned blue and the marimba sounded haunting, dreamy tones, Boyt looked from side to side, kicked one leg, and fell forward to the floor, landing catlike on his hands. He portrayed a character torn between fantasy and nightmare, bringing to mind Blanche DuBois in the Varsouviana scene in A Streetcar Named Desire, as well as life during COVID."
- Melissa Strong, Broad Street Review
"This number is a study in contrasts. Movement vs. stillness. Sound vs. silence. Boyt’s flailing, seemingly nonchalant arm movements contrast Thierauf’s controlled, measured strikes with the sticks. Boyt’s body is a contrast, too: The fluidity in their upper torso, their head moving like a bobblehead in slow motion, is in marked contrast to the often angular motions of their legs, kicking out at right angles, feet flexed."
- Darcy Grabenstein, thINKingDANCE
Philadelphia, 2020
"Asya Zlatina and Sean Thomas Boyt were among Philadelphia’s most innovative dance artists before the pandemic, and their 2020 Fringe Festival entries demonstrate their ability to keep creating in new and different ways. Combining movement with technology, sound, and collaboration, #Quarantineksvkhvkhkdvhai and Looks Like Sounds Like—from Artist House/Asya Zlatina & Dancers and stb x at, respectively—are two different yet complementary pieces well worth seeing.
stb x at is Boyt’s collaboration with percussionist Andy Thierauf. For the past eight years, the duo has collaborated on work that transcends discipline and genre. Their devotion to experimentation lends itself to Boyt’s rejection of dance’s gender norms—a graceful dancer with elegant limbs, he often performs wearing a dress. Looks Like Sounds Like is an improvisation, and a full-length piece, which feels like a treat these days. Longer dances were not unusual pre-pandemic, but ongoing closures make it tough for artists to develop, rehearse, stage, and perform them.
Filmed onstage in a theater without an audience and streaming on the artists’ website, Looks Like Sounds Like captures the current state of the performing arts. The last of its three scenes was a standout, with red lights illuminating Thierauf as he played piercing notes on a marimba while Boyt entered by rolling across the stage in a white dress with a gauzy underskirt. As the red lights turned blue and the marimba sounded haunting, dreamy tones, Boyt looked from side to side, kicked one leg, and fell forward to the floor, landing catlike on his hands. He portrayed a character torn between fantasy and nightmare, bringing to mind Blanche DuBois in the Varsouviana scene in A Streetcar Named Desire, as well as life during COVID."
- Melissa Strong, Broad Street Review
"This number is a study in contrasts. Movement vs. stillness. Sound vs. silence. Boyt’s flailing, seemingly nonchalant arm movements contrast Thierauf’s controlled, measured strikes with the sticks. Boyt’s body is a contrast, too: The fluidity in their upper torso, their head moving like a bobblehead in slow motion, is in marked contrast to the often angular motions of their legs, kicking out at right angles, feet flexed."
- Darcy Grabenstein, thINKingDANCE
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(Improvisation)
Philadelphia, 2020 "Next comes a segment that fuses movement and percussion featuring Sean Thomas Boyt and Andy Thierauf. As Thierauf provides accompaniment through a wide array of instruments scattered about the studio, Boyt moves from place to place, pushing the expanses of the space to its limit and infusing the entire room with energy. As the improv progresses it slowly turns into a duet, rather than abide by the standard performer/accompanist dynamic, as Thierauf moved from drum to drum crisscrossing paths with Boyt, the two weaving dynamically together throughout the space." - Winfield Maben, Philadelphia Dance Journal |
in moderation
Philadelphia, 2020 "The final work was of the duo stb x at, made up of Sean Thomas Boyt and Andy Thierauf. Andy assumed his position at the drums and began playing an ominous rumble, while Sean moved with a wave-like dexterity diagonally across the space. As Andy’s drums intensified, Sean fell into a kind of movement vernacular, returning to motifs of a hand reaching out on the ground, a side glance, and torso sloshing. Sean and Andy’s performances sometimes matched in pace and texture, and other times departed from one another to fall into their own rolling groove. The work rumbled to an end after a few minutes, but I felt as though I could have sat and watched the stormy landscape the pair created for hours." - Nicole Bradbury, Philadelphia Dance Journal |
we're all dancing on a cliff together
Boston, 2017
The final piece, “We’re all dancing on a cliff together,” experimented with sound and bodies in space. It was a duet danced by Sean Thomas Boyt and Dr. Andy Thierauf of stb x at. One dancer moved Gumby-like, seemingly with no bones. His movement was momentum-driven, a turn evolving from an inwards curve or shift of a hip. The other mover provided dynamic, intriguing percussion. He used every imaginable surface, from the floors to the walls to his own body.
They moved all around the space, and together created stop-and-go dynamics. Just like a fun piece of music, there were all sorts of rhythmic dynamics to enjoy.
- Kathryn Boland, Dance Informa
Boston, 2017
The final piece, “We’re all dancing on a cliff together,” experimented with sound and bodies in space. It was a duet danced by Sean Thomas Boyt and Dr. Andy Thierauf of stb x at. One dancer moved Gumby-like, seemingly with no bones. His movement was momentum-driven, a turn evolving from an inwards curve or shift of a hip. The other mover provided dynamic, intriguing percussion. He used every imaginable surface, from the floors to the walls to his own body.
They moved all around the space, and together created stop-and-go dynamics. Just like a fun piece of music, there were all sorts of rhythmic dynamics to enjoy.
- Kathryn Boland, Dance Informa
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movers\\shakers
The Iron Factory, 2015 The inventive and thrilling performance duo stb x, at rubber-limbed dancer Sean Thomas Boyt and percussionist and composer Andy Thierauf (playing everything from vibraphone to the floor to Boyt's torso), presents the work "Movers and Shakers" at the Iron Factory's Third Floor (118 Fontain St.) at 8 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 22. - Allie Vollpe, The Inquirer |
Plastique Romantique
Vox Populi, 2015 What do you get when you put together a stage filled with plastic bags, a dancer and musician? Plastique Romantique. Wittily called “dance perc,” Romantique was a duo performed by dancer Sean Thomas and percussionist Andy Theirauf. (The term “dance perc’ resulted from the combination of the words dance and percussion which is the art mediums of Boyt and Theirauf respectively.) An excerpt of a larger work, Plastique Romantique investigate the values people place on plastic and their attachment to its everyday use. - Gregory King, Philadelphia Dance Journal |
