Narcissus takes flight in Rhodes Theatre

Although thousands of drivers commute down Peachtree past it every day, the building — the last remaining segment of a shopping center that surrounded Rhodes Hall on three sides — has otherwise been pretty much abandoned and seemingly forgotten. Almost everything inside, right down to the seats, has been removed, and the lavish art-deco architectural details of the walls, with ornamental columns and arches in pink and gold, have been left to crumble.

“It has such a specific energy and history,” says dancer and choreographer Erik Thurmond of the raw, cavernous space. This month Thurmond and seven female dancers will perform his work “Ripple,” a retelling of the ancient Greek myth of Echo and Narcissus, in the old Rhodes Theatre.

“At some point, it offered this very lush experience, but now it’s in a state of decay,” said Thurmond. “And I think because it was a place where movies were shown, it has that kind of history of storytelling, spectacle and performance already inlaid. It just hasn’t been touched in a very long time.”

Thurmond says the evocative nature of the open space makes it the perfect setting for his performance.

“This is the biggest opportunity I’ve been given as of yet,” he says. “It’s one of the largest spaces that my work has ever been performed in, so we’ve been trying to push it in terms of scale.”

Bringing shows and audiences back to the Rhodes Theatre is the vision of Lauri Stallings, founder of the Atlanta dance company Glo and creator of the dance performance series Tanz Farm, which invites contemporary choreographers from Atlanta and around the world to set their performances inside historic Atlanta properties, primarily the old cotton gin factory Goodson Yard at the Goat Farm Arts Center, but now the Rhodes Theatre, as well.

“These spaces have dreams and memories of people,” says Stallings. “That’s fairly exciting for artists, not to just occupy but to collaborate with those dreams and memories.”

Stallings says that the sense of playfulness and adventure in Thurmond’s work made him a perfect match for the space.

The performance, which appears on a double bill with the work of visiting New York choreographer Malcolm Low, tells two stories: first is the story of Echo, played by Anna Bracewell, who protects her fellow nymphs from the wrath of Hera and is punished for it by having her ability to speak removed. Second is the story of Narcissus, played by Thurmond, loved by Echo but who is punished by the gods for his pride and vanity by falling in love with his own reflection in a pool of water.

Thurmond says the 45-minute work combines elements of dance and theater to make a show that’s playful and funny, but also romantic and tragic.

The choreography is set to seven narrative poems by Atlanta playwright Johnny Drago that have been performed by the cast, recorded and remixed by Atlanta musician and artist Ben Coleman.

“I took all of that sound and I now have a huge bank of audio to work with,” says Coleman. The soundtrack, which also mixes tiny candid samples of the dancers giggling, breathing or whispering into the score, will sound especially evocative in the reverbing, echoing space of Rhodes Theatre, he says.

Casting himself as Narcissus in his own show is a bit of self-reflexive humor that Thurmond relishes, but it also conveys some weightier significance regarding a dancer’s life.

“At times, I struggle with the mirror,” he says. “As a dancer it’s something I’m constantly facing. I remember specific times in my life trying to avoid mirrors, catching myself in store windows and trying to pull away. As a dancer it’s just this thing we deal with: body image and self-awareness, constantly putting yourself on display, dying for admiration, trying to please others.”

Thurmond grew up in Gwinnett County and studied at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham before moving to New York to study musical theater at the American Music and Dramatic Academy. What he learned from the experience was he didn’t want to pursue a career in musical theater.

One evening, a friend invited him to come see her senior dance recital at Julliard. “It was just this incredible experience,” says Thurmond. “It showed me so many different options for what dance could be, options I didn’t realize were there. It felt more like the visual art that I loved and the music that I loved. It touched me in a way that dance in school hadn’t. I just remember seeing the people around me and the space around me differently afterwards. It just clicked with me in some way.”

Thurmond enrolled in the Alvin Ailey School and went on to study with the famed Batsheva Dance Company in Israel. When his visa ran out, he came back to Atlanta, a stop he thought would be temporary. “I was kind of thinking I would save money and find the next place,” he says. “But the Atlanta dance community really scooped me up.”

Thurmond is a full-time member of Decatur’s professional dance company CORE Performance, and he also produces his own work independently around town. Since space for dance is at a premium, and funding often low, this requires a sense of invention: Thurmond has performed in a former Sunday school loft at the Druid Hills Baptist Church, on the back of a truck, in a backyard in Kirkwood, at the East Atlanta bar the Earl and in the Decatur Cemetery. Thurmond says that wherever he’s presented work in Atlanta, he’s found supportive audiences, and he hopes that now they’ll follow him into the Rhodes Theatre for his largest piece yet.

“There were times in New York I felt like I saw only other dancers at dance events,” he says. “That’s fine, but you start to wonder who the work is being made for. We’re undergoing a really incredible renaissance across the arts here. I find the audiences so supportive, exciting and also so open. More than anything I was offered space here, which is something I could never find in New York. Starting out with nothing but my parent’s basement, I found I was able to start forming ideas, and the community just continues to support me.”