Announcement: 60X60 Dance at the World Financial Center

60×60 DANCE: 60 composers are paired with 60 New York choreographers  for an electrifying hour of 60 original one-minute collaborations "How short can a work be for it to get its message across?" WHEN:  Friday, November 13. Two shows: 12:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. WHERE:  Winter Garden at the World Financial Center, 220 Vesey Street, […]

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Dance Review: Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, I AM INSPIRED

I walk into City Center excited primarily because of the beautiful photography advertising Christopher Wheeldon’s Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company.  I am anxiously looking forward to experience the beauty of what this dance company has to offer. The show opens up with Christopher Wheeldon’s Commedia, a piece where the dancers are wearing white unitards, designed by Isabel […]

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Dance Review: America Dances! Gala for Career Transition for Dancers Sponsored by Rolex

“This is the greatest show,” boasts a balletomane sitting next to me as I flip through my program waiting for America Dances! , Career Transition for Dancers’ 24th anniversary jubilee and celebration to begin; and, with a presenting sponsor as Rolex and a roster filled with the world’s most legendary dancers, I couldn’t imagine anything […]

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Announcement: Nicholas Andre Dance Performs at Joyce SoHo

NICHOLAS ANDRE DANCE Presents its Sixth Annual New York City Season Including Two World Premieres at Joyce SoHo December 17 – 20, 2009 at 8pm Nicholas Andre Dance, a New York City-based company whose mission is to bring athletic concepts of modern dance movement to a wide variety of audiences, presents its Sixth New York […]

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Announcement: Complexions 15th Anniversary Season at The Joyce

Complexions Contemporary Ballet Returns to the Joyce Theater For Its Milestone 15th Anniversary Season Love, Sweat and Tears November 17-29, 2009 Featuring Four Brand New Works, Including Mercy and Dirty Wire by Dwight Rhoden New York City, November 2, 2009 – Complexions Contemporary Ballet Artistic Directors and Co-Founders Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson have announced […]

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Dance Review: HipOCrit W.I.P. -Progressive Hip Hop Dance and Culture

Love New York for how in each borough of this creative city there is a happening community of creative types, -artists, activists, and industry socialites- that band together and have their own sty-lo uniquely characteristic of their own nook within this illustrious cityscape. Tonight, I’m at the free-feeling artist space at the Irondale Center taking […]

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Dance Review: Christopher Wheeldon’s Cohesive Company, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company at City Center

Christopher Wheeldon is a jack-of-all trades as he takes on City Center in Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company’s third season.  He serves as artistic director, fundraiser, promoter, spokesperson, and host for the evening as he welcomed the audience at the start of Sunday’s matinee performance to sit back and enjoy the show.  Mr. Wheeldon’s underlying goal for […]

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Dance Review: Riedel Dance Theater – Mischievously Entertaining, Spinning Tales through Dance

Riedel Dance Theater presents a haunted performance of Ukrainian Eggs: Terrible Tales of Tragedy AlleGorey in the intimate theater space of the Joyce SoHo over Halloween weekend. The title includes a pun to match the inspiration for the collection.  This series of storybook dance vignettes is based on the works of illustrator, writer and artist […]

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Dance Review: A Perfect Break, Jen Abrams at Wow Cafe Theater

There is something to be said for art that accomplishes it’s goals, and Jen Abrams knows how to make it. However, success within the work doesn’t necessarily translate to success as performance. Most of This is True, running now through November 8th at Wow Cafe theater, is a clear, tight example of an art piece which knows exactly what it wants, and, mostly, how to get it.

Appearing at Wow Cafe, the longest-running, anarchically run women’s and transgender people’s collective in the world, Abrams’ work takes on the lives of four women who are sisters, friends, and lovers. At first, dynamics between the three original characters are functional, if flawed and Abrams skillfully uses movement as sub-text for spoken relationships between characters. All of this is well-constructed, and well-performed, if predictable. Two sisters fighting about the dentist and an outfit for a dinner out maintain respectable conversation, but their movements tell a deeper story, resorting to hair pulling and wrestling.

When the fourth woman (disturbingly portrayed through crashing handstands and pummeling elbows by Ariel Cohen) enters the mix, things start to come apart. The work is split into sections of “before” and “after” – characters lying catatonic, slumping in chairs, obsessively sorting socks, slapping themselves uncontrollably; we understand that something big has happened here. Abrams again is able to clearly illustrate the break down of relationships through movement, but the movement vocabulary is so dated that it, unfortunately, removes some of the urgency of the choreography.

In fact the whole work feels a little like a textbook example, circa 1998. It fits together well as dance theater, but, it’s very cohesiveness plus some poor choices undermine what is otherwise an emotionally powerful piece. As complicated as Abrams phrase work gets, she relies on overly simplistic movement and acting to get her through places where we are supposed to empathize with the pain of her characters. At one point, after we know what this “big event” is, Abrams (as Carla) faces the audience and shakes her knee, trembling with wide eyes and dilated pupils. Unfortunately, her acting isn’t enough to pull this off.

That being said, the work does reach out on several levels, finding resonance especially, I would imagine, with women and LGTB communities for it’s fully realized portrayal of female relationships. Whatever problems I find with the work itself…. whateveeeeeer… The real joy is in watching the commitment of these talented performers.

You have plenty of time to catch this show on its extended run, so head to WOW and check it out.

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Meghan Frederick
Performance: Jen Abrams
Venue: Wow Cafe
Show Date: October 28, 2009
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Class Watch: iDANZ Undercover Reviews Class with Stephen Petronio

I am working undercover for iDANZ, taking a dance class with Steven Petronio, a New York choreographer who has worked in the business as long as I’ve existed.  Getting to Peridance’s new foster home at 890 Broadway is a challenge in itself, as I usually take class in midtown or upper west side part of […]

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