Diavolo is propelling the evolution of dance and entertainment to make the arts more integrated within the mainstream of America.

Set on an abstract Twenty-First Century Galleon, the group is set adrift – sink or swim – upon the ever-shifting landscape of human relations in modern society. A visceral and emotional journey, Trajectoire examines tremendous loss and abandonment. At journey’s end, the piece shows the transcendence of the human soul against all odds.

Section 1: 1999, Section 2: 2001

An epic journey through the evolution of mankind. Flesh and texture collide in a barrage of corporal imagery contrasting a range of architectural form in an ever-transforming environment. Abstractions of strangers in a strange land of bacteria invading a body evoke metaphors of loss of identity and the wonder of life's persistence until the full cycle of life is completed. (running time: 20 min)

2007

A wall peppered with protruding metal bars reveals an abstract military obstacle course in the trenches of war. The restrictions of being wounded or physically limited influence movement, and the dancers must achieve their goals despite self-imposed handicaps and inescapable gravity – yet they have no destination.

1995, revised 2002

Literally translated, “Tete En L'Air” means “head in the sky,” a sense of bewilderment and wonder. Inspired by the surreal work of French filmmaker Jacques Tati, Tete En L'Air paints the journey of isolation faced by citizens in the modern world. Bewildered by endless commuting, relocating, fear of intimacy and fear of the ultimate destination, citizens try to transcend disconnection and xenophobic tendencies that affect their lives. (running time: 11 min)

2008

Using the cage-like structure, a Man is exploring, establishing and claiming his space. It is within the structure and the reactionary movement that themes of confinement, pressure, freedom, escape, and entrapment are explored. (running time: 11 min)

A work in progress 2009

Knockturne brings to the stage all the ordinary and extraordinary possibilities, difficulties and resulting absurdities of one of the most common structures in our architectural landscape – doors. Tall doors, short doors, revolving doors, doors that flip - doors of all sizes, door that we enter, exit, reconfigure, climb and collide with every day of our life. In Knockturne we discover doors dividing space, doors that provide thresholds of experience, doors that block our way to adventure, and doors that we open and close within friendships, love affairs, families, and business relationships. Knockturne is a play on the English/French word "Nocturne" (Notturna - canzone di notte) using the word knock (corpi), as in "to knock on a door" (corpi al portella) as the first syllable. In its current incarnation, Knockturne is presented as a love duet between a man and a woman.

2004

Based on the Native American legend, the 18 foot aluminum and steel spinning web takes a journey through faith. The meaning of dreams in our lives and what price we will pay for them is examined as the Dreamcatcher journeys through the struggle, the despair, the pain, the hope, and the joy of our dreams. Ultimately, it is a journey of faith.

2003

Combines the word “human”, with the Latin word for machine, “machina”. The principal of human motion and mechanical relations, a combination of the human form, and the simplicity of the most important of machines, the wheel.

2004

A sensual solo stimulated by the power of the feminine mystique omni-present in the form of a cyber-spatial female sculpture of sublime contours – a stunningly iridescent other-worldly apparition.

1999, revised 2002, 2005

A ten foot long steel tunnel that sits four feet above the floor is the landscape. Musicians begin by playing the structure creating an industrial, pulsating sound. Performers then lower themselves into the tunnel moving vertically, horizontally and circularly using the walls of the tunnel as well as one another. Man Made is a surrealistic metaphor for the intense relationship between the temporal quality of the human being and the seemingly immutable, unforgiving quality of our industrial environment.

1995

When mankind discovers the intriguing value of the lowly bench, everyone who encounters it wants it, and will do anything – anything! – to get it. And once a person has it, he or she will do anything to keep it, mostly away from everybody else – and also by any means. Even if it means destroying it.

2000

A passageway to the future, through a doorway from the past, we are made of the people that have touched our lives in some way, all of whom are now just ghosts to us.

1996, revised 2005

Strapped to a spring-loaded suspended chair, a lone performer struggles to find his equilibrium on this precarious apparatus. Relatively immobilized at first, the performer reaches out to a female performer in an attempt to find equilibrium within himself and in his interpersonal relationships. As he masters his surroundings, he also discovers balance within himself.

1996

In this sequel to D2R A, the steel pipes have been replaced with noose-like ropes, and dancers wear the traditional uniform of office workers. The struggle continues, however, in a new environment with projections of an urban landscape through which the dancers navigate their way.

1996, revised 2002

Staged entirely beneath a 20' x 20' piece of spandex just above the floor, this unusual piece explores the unique properties of the setting, as well as the human reaction to its inherent confinement. Performers remain beneath the stretching cloth for the duration of the piece, save for a lone figure who cannot escape its confines and is eventually swallowed within the spandex's organically shifting form.

1996

Catapult investigates the loving, hating, waiting, worrying, fighting, and dying that make up the human condition, whether it’s a group grope by a clan of cavemen on a stone slab under a haunting moon, love and other disasters on a Renaissance loveseat, antic familial encounters on retro sectionals, or even the despairing vacuity of the contemporary couch potato on his/her post modern plastique plush. Catapult employs this ubiquitous piece of furniture to illuminate that place in the human spirit where we gather with our fears, our obsessions, mold our desires, deal with our ambitions, try to satisfy our hungers, live out our desperations, discovering the adventures of space and await the rapture.

1999

Capture(d) features two performers involved in a courtship dance. One is attached within a rocking silver half-sphere, and the other dances with and around him. Together they explore the beauty and hardships we experience in our relationships, and the strength it takes to sustain them.

2002

With a cast of two, Bonjour is a complete relationship from beginning to end in six minutes. The drama of whom is winning or dominating - from the moment of attraction, through infatuation, the throes of love, differences, and outright conflict - and how resolution is found.

1992

The beginning of the world, and the smallest particle that creates life is you. If you look within the center of yourself you find balance, unity and equilibrium

2005

With spinning ladders and cheerful, jaunty music, the performers explore the intricacies of human relationships – how we support each other, let each other down and move intricately to avoid collision.

1998



(Photo Credits for Repetoire section and gallery : Jeremy Stegall, Kristie Kahns, Ed Kreiger, Guillerme Raltos, Elazar Harel, John E D Bass)