While individual dancers of “Biped” repeatedly connect with each other in a variety of configurations, Papadopoulos’ “Mycelium” invests in the idea of the collective. Twenty dancers move together as a single organism. Mycelium, Wikipedia tells me, is the root-like structure of a fungus that aides nutrient absorption and breaks down organic matter. In other words, this is a collective that supports gut health and composting—truly a choreography for the current era. 

The piece begins with one performer onstage, grows to include two, then three as the group multiplies into a large pulsing organism. The electronic score (composed by Coti K) makes a rumbling sound that turns into thunder. All the dancers move exactly alike. Their feet shuffle, barely visible in the lighting (designed by Elisa Alexandropoulou), giving the appearance of floating. They cluster and sway as they march in unison with arms like strands of seaweed. So rhythmic this arm movement, I imagine it as the finger snapping of back-up singers for an R&B band. The shoulders gyrate; the hips respond to footsteps underneath. 

This continues for more than an hour, a marathon of repetition. Like an accordion, the cluster of dancers expands then contracts. Vehicles idling at a stop light, then suddenly someone steps on the gas. The back scrim ruffles with a silent breeze. The light hits the dancers’ faces in such a way they look like finger puppets with features drawn on with a Sharpie. Heads previously held immobile, now occasionally nod. It’s an odd tick. Is something wrong? The rhythm quickens, the head movements become more frequent and the pulsing motion grows into a wave. The dancers glide farther apart and a cluster breaks off into its own entity. I’m watching so intently that I begin to feel a little motion sick. There’s a sound of chopping ice and sawing, gurgling water. I sense the end of the work approaching with, I have to admit, a bit of relief. This work is as close as I can come to describing a meditative state of flow. It’s beautiful, and a little intense. The dancers recede into a ghostly blur upstage. I can hear them breathing together.