Month: January 2015

January 25th, “Bear/Skin”

Choreographed by Keith Hennessy

“It’s ok to sit in front”

I didn’t know that Hennessy’s previous show included urinating on the stage. So, we sat in front.  On cushions.  I sat next to Guillermo Gómez-Peña; it seemed the place to be.

The best part of this dance was the speech at the beginning.  The rest was oddly interesting as a study on The Rite of Spring and the act/action of sacrifice.  It was at times strikingly personal and at other times strangely unrefined.  Space blankets!  I didn’t “get” the piece in its totality, but I don’t think that was the point.  I was happy to be left with questions:

Why do we keep returning to the The Rite of Spring ? Sacrifice? The unknown (and hence a filling in or creating in).   Why do we want to fill in the gaps?  What does it matter to recover a lost dance?  What does this kind of repetition say about dance, culture, history?

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January 16th Wendy Whelan “Restless Creature”

Choreography by Kyle Abraham, Joshua Beamish, Brian Brooks and Alejandro Cerrudo

Can one escape 20+ years of habit?  

Even with four different choreographers, Whelan still seemed very much “the same.” There is no doubt that Whelan is a beautiful mover, but is she a restless creature?   Perhaps, but she seemed held (hostage) by her history.  There were flashes of the classical throughout the four dances, but it was the articulations of her feet and grace of her arms that oozed ballerina.  For me, her habit stood out more than anything else.

What is the fascination (a kind of fetish) of seeing what happens to ballerinas after they leave the comfort of their companies, mentors, tutus, and partners?  What does it matter for mean for Whelan to be different on the stage – or at least trying to be different on the stage?  

In many ways, I was restless for Whelan.  I yearned for something more radical than her hair falling out of its tightly constructed bun.