[Contra Critique is intended to be series devoted to reporting non-critically on art and performance presentations that are not meant to be reviewed, such as works in process or private viewings.]
Dixon Place’s “Crossing Boundaries”, a works-in-process series curated by Marcia Monroe: This week featuring works by Rachel Bernsen, Joyce S. Lim, Elke Rindfleisch and Adrienne Celeste Fadjo
‘Twas an all dance program last night at Dixon Place. Names and credits may not be accurate or fair since there was no program…
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Rachel Bernsen (along with a trumpet player) presented a piece called “Love With The Speed Of A Thousand Horses”…I think. Several objects lay on the stage; a chair with a trumpet on it, a TV set, a radio, a hat, a trumpet mute and the head of a plunger. To piece began under dim lighting by Bernsen turning on the TV and leaning in front of it. A Godard film began playing. The radio was turned on as well, and you could hear a mix of static, electronic noise and Stravinsky. The trumpeter played slow, long jazzy notes over the other music. Ms. Bernsen, dressed in a short trench coat with a small black dress underneath, incorporated modest movements into her dance, eventually swinging one leg at a time across her front. The trumpeter moved out of his chair and sat off to the side, playing; then moved back to the chair. After a pause, the lights brightened, the music and television were turned off and the entire section was repeated, now without the technological interference. The piece seemed to be a lot about position, points of sound and movement at different places.
- Joyce S. Lim choreographed a piece called “Noh Plays”…I think. It was danced by Andrea Johnston, wearing a long brown halter dress. The piece began on the floor with Johnston arranging a pile of polished stones, which kept falling and spreading around, creating new shapes on the floor with each failed construction. Then Johnston stuffed several of them into her hand, some of them falling out. When they were stable, she rose and began dancing, clenching the rocks in her hand the entire time. Occasionally they would fly out, dropping dangerously toward the audience. The movement was strained and shifting, primordial; then sometimes swift, controlled and steady.
- Elke Rindfleisch presented excerpts from her a solo work called “Dancing On Straight Legs.” At first dressed in sweats and a t-shirt, arm movements subtly, carefully explored the space around her body in little darting gestures which built up gradually into larger versions, her arms and legs seemingly pulling her body in different directions, sometimes yanking herself from one side of the stage to the other in only two steps. During a break, Ms. Rindfleisch sat in a chair and pinned a bright blue, short cut wig on her head, then pulled off her sweat pants and t-shirt to reveal a slinky black lycra dress beneath. She came back to the stage a new character. Now similar movements were bolder, more violent, pulling her to the floor; stretching, reaching, crossing her body; then suddenly, a moment of balance with arms and legs bent and out to the side. The lights faded as she stared down the audience, waiting…
- Finally, Adrienne Fadjo presented a duet for male and female dancers from her piece “Home.” Dressed in 50′s sock hop, the couple gestured, danced romantically, stylized and sentimental like a young teenage couple at a high school dance. The female appeared deeply in love and moved by their dance, while the male was steady and less facially expressive, even though he was right there with his partner in all the movement.
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