Peerless Performance

Stephanie Nugent performs One: An evening of dance/theater. At
the Diavolo Performance Space, Los Angeles, December 10.

It’s not new news that Santa Barbara’s Stephanie Nugent is a powerhouse
of a performer, a prolific dance-maker and an articulate
communicator of her chosen art form. Yet performing solo not at Center Stage
Theatre but in the cavernous yet intimate black box space at the
Brewery Arts Center in downtown L.A., she shifted into a whole new
realm of power, taking command of the stage and devouring space
with more impact than her slight frame suggests should be
possible.

One is a compilation of four solo dances, each of which explores
issues of personal identity, psychological and spiritual
development, perceptions of the physical body and the body’s deeper
yearnings. Presented in this way, the four pieces read as a
progression from literal to metaphorical, external to internal.