Making their professional debut as choreographers and performers were Maddie Lucas and Ella Melideo, juniors at the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. In “Thread Lightly,” the pair began on the floor, intertwining limbs, eventually rising, and continuing to loop, wind and ease their way into each other’s spaces/bodies, where maneuvering and yoga-esque poses (crow, anyone?) ruled.

And then, in a complete and utter departure from any contemporary/cum/commercial dance concert, came Samba Queen Gisella Ferreira, a Brazilian American performance artist who wowed with her brilliant smile, dazzling footwork and showgirl costume: a giant, faux feathery headdress, plumy wings and a requisite jeweled bikini. Moving non-stop around the floor, occasionally having to adjust her crown, this terpsichorean bird of paradise may bill herself as Samba Queen—at home in Rio, Vegas or a Havana nightclub of yore—but she is clearly Samba Goddess.

Between the numbers’ banter also functioned as a bridge connecting works, with Thomsen touting Schlegel’s inspired choreography, “Three Arrows.” The antithesis of the Brazilian spitfire’s oeuvre, this number featured Emmy Cheung, Aika Doone and Emma Marcellana, and was set to the soothing sounds of Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai with the Wind Travelin’ Band. 

In constant motion, the trio also deployed intertwining limbs, often resembling a corporeal amoeba, or koi luxuriating in a peaceful pond, their slow walking reminiscent of Robert Wilson, while a sudden leap alerted one to the possibilities of humankind: three graces as a kind of guiding force.

With Toyin Sogunro’s “Eternal Echoes,” the room was jolted back to another life: one of hips, arms, legs and torsos exploding with joy. Deities, a quintet of women, including Sogunro, gyrated to the music of TPM, and exemplified Black culture as seen through street and club dance. Teeming with spins, jumps and solo turns, the work served as a coda to an evening that was nothing short of high-intensity, thought-provoking and ever-exhilarating dance.

Kudos to Thomsen, Schlegel and crew, and to the tremendous choreographers and performers who proved once again, that the arts, especially dance, can heal us when we need it most, especially after a week when a bruising and terrifying election has unsettled so many.

Indeed, when the future seems so uncertain, it’s a good thing we have this Congress to help us not only deal with the world, but also, in a strange way, make sense of it.