FABULOSO! Invites You to Feel Something Real with Its Gorgeous Seasons of Dance

Let’s face it… Existence has been a complicated prospect of late. Between the world catching fire and the smaller griefs and heartbreaks we still have to contend with every day, gasping onto meaning and connection seems than ever. And if these are all too relatable sentiments, we have a welcome balm to offer you, a small escape to help you feel less alone. And that is the incredible first season of Fabulous!titled “Alone Together.” Whether you’ve been feeling too much of late and struggling to contend with it, or conversely feeling totally empty and looking for a way to reconnect, the beautiful movements and stories that Fabulous! tells through its episodes of dance are here to help. Trust me, the emotional catharsis is real.

Fabulous! introduces its first “season” of dance with the following quote. “I’ve never been good at spotting my stains. My mom taught me how. But every time a pen leaks, I still call one of my sisters to help me fix the inky black blotch.” And then offers, “Let us clean your stains.” And that is exactly what Fabulous! does if you let yourself immerse in the beautiful work created by its talented artists. It’s like calling your family to help you clean a stain, but instead it’s calling on a vulnerable outpouring of emotion made palpable through dance and video so that you, too, can access your feelings through it, positive and negative, and let yourself be seen.

But what exactly is Fabulous!? Fabulous! creators Steven Bangerter and Mio Ishikawa explain that Fabulous! is a collaborative entity that focuses on “site-sympathetic choreography, which is dance that sympathizes with the location while prioritizing a human state.” Fabulous! has kicked off its projects with what it terms its season one, titled “Alone Together,” which features several episodes of dance devoted to the idea. And personally, we love the concept of creating and sharing seasons of dance that tell a story in the way that seasons of TV do. Dance is every bit as visual and storytelling of a medium as any other kind, and arguably one of the most emotionally evocative ones of all.

Bangerter and Ishikawa share on their Patreon, which you should definitely join, that “Everything in season one is about aloneness and togetherness, and being alone together. The music and lyrics all speak the same language.” And the movement and dancing sure do as well. The notion of videos threaded together by a theme will be happening in every season of Fabulous!with each theme representing one season. Of course, past seasons will continue to inform creations to come. And if “Alone Together” is any indication, they’ll all be executed to great perfection.

What struck me as I watched the incredible videos of “Alone Together” was just how perfectly they evoke that ephemeral pain in your chest, both harrowing and beautiful, that occurs when you taste the bittersweet pain of loss. There’s true grief in them, but also a vision of joy because, often, grief implies that there was also the existence of something beautiful not too long ago. And although only you alone can experience the emotions you hold, there’s a healing nature to seeing the essence of them reflected back to you through Fabulous!‘s creations, the true gift of knowing you’re not alone in feeling this kind of feeling. Truly, these videos remind you that you are alone, together.

And, in fact, capturing these kind of states is baked right into the title of Fabulous! Bangerter shares, “Fabulous! is a great name. That’s the cleaner they used at Sleep No More and Life and Trustand there’s something about smell that’s really evocative. The concept of smells, how they help your brain register memories, but it’s fleeting, then they go away, it’s magical. I’ve always been interested in how smells do that. And Sleep No More had such a distinct smell, as did Life and Trust, that now whenever I smell things, it’s just this instant nostalgia and joy and sadness all wrapped up in one, and it’s just really beautiful.”

And that instant evocation of such convoluted sensations is exactly what Fabulous! accomplishes so gracefully in its first season of dance videos. Or as Bangerter calls them, “Little blurps of video that are little whiffs of memories” that surface, “and then they go away.” For a short and sweet time, Fabulous! helps complicated bursts of feeling rise to the surface. Among other fluttering notes, “Alone Together” evoked in me loss, joy, grief, community, the fragile beauty of just sitting with someone you love, levity, a search for something or someone missing, loneliness, and light. But just as the bittersweet ache took over, the video ended, keeping me there for just the right amount of time.

Fabuloso dance videos feature — Fabulous!

The videos and work created by Fabulous! are also so clearly steeped in great love and passion. For those not aware, Sleep No More and Life and Trustmentioned above, were two incredible immersive theater performances in NYC. Fabulous! creators Bangerter and Ishikawa performed in both together, alongside many of the incredible dancers that feature in Fabulous!‘s projects. The recent loss of both these shows hit the community of performers who created them and the fans who loved them incredibly hard. But through Fabulous!Bangerter and Ishikawa hope to keep both the spirit of exploration the shows offered and the gorgeous community they manifested alive.

Long Live LIFE AND TRUST—A Beautiful Immersive Theater Performance We Loved and Lost

The creators reveal that it was Ishikawa who came up with the idea, noting especially that they wanted to keep performing with the casts they adore. They were out of a job, but didn’t want to stop working together, didn’t want to stop learning and researching from people who could help them grow and evolve. And “Alone Together” is only the beginning.

For one, season two of Fabulous! is coming, although we don’t yet know its theme. In it, Bangerter and Ishikawa aim to continue to collaborate with familiar faces to Sleep No More and Life and Trust fans, as well as create more involved stories with even greater depth (if that’s even possible, considering how exquisite Fabulous! season one is). They also tease other projects on the horizon, including dance films, live performances, and work with artists in other disciplines.

To conclude, Ishikawa shares, “We wanted to work with people we loved and be interested in what we do. Sleep No More ended. Life and Trust ended. But our research should never end. I thought it was right to start something.” And ultimately, the results could not be more right or more meaningful.

To support and learn more about Fabulous!make sure to support them on Patreon, and follow them on Instagram, You can check out the entirety of season one, “Alone Together,” in order, below.

If you’d like to follow the fabulous creators and dancers featured in the videos, here they are as well: Steve Bangerter, Mio Ishikawa, Madison Olandt, Babou Sanneh, Spencer William Grossman, Hannah Straney, Ny, Lenin Fernandez Jr, Ryan VanCompernolle, and Noah Wang.

“To the povo fabuloso!” (Fabulous people!)