Dance Review: The Extra-Sensory Pedestrians/ Kimberly Young, Wunderkammer

Wonder why?

Wunderkammer, according to Wikipedia, is a cabinet of curiosities, a collection of objects categorized as belonging to natural history, geology, ethnography, archaeology, religious or historical relics, works of art, and antiquities. In other words, it’s a collection of random stuff. Kimberly Young’s piece entitled, Wunderkammer is just that.

A semi-transparent plastic shower curtain spans the entire width of the space in the Joyce Soho theater. It creates a divide between what is clearly visible and what is blurred, mysterious, and obscured. At times a dancer will pass beyond this veil, turn into a ghostlike presence, and disappear. It’s an intriguing visual effect, which could have been used more.

A majority of the piece is performed in front of the veil, in clear view. The five dancer company, which includes Young, is dressed in gray-black casual attire, something between what you would wear to a modern dance class and what you would wear on the street. Only a bit of cream-colored lace trim is added to the costumes to define them as costumes.

The performance is an ongoing sequence of disjointed movements. True to the title, it’s a collection of everything, including the kitchen sink. They lay on their backs and flutter their feet in the air, do ballet-esque passés, bang on an imaginary piano on the floor, do contact improv. style partnering, run backwards, do twisted floor movements, crawl like animals… You name it, it’s in there. Although these movements are interesting in themselves, the piece is hard to follow, because there’s nothing to follow. Everything is taken out of context because there is no context. There’s no through line, no progression, nothing to grasp onto.

But, there is a moment about midway through which is effective. All five dancers come to a still, standing facing the audience. They gradually melt into distorted dance party moves. For the first time in Stephen Moore’s sound score, a steady beat comes in. The lights turn disco-style colors, and the scene takes on the atmosphere of a drunken, potentially drug enhanced, dance party.

I will give Kimberly Young and her dancers credit for their committed, well rehearsed performance. There are sequences in precise unison with unexpected timing, rather than steady counts. This synchronized timing can only be achieved through much repetition to commit the rhythm to memory.

The thing with Kimberly Young is that she’s young. She has the ingredients, she just needs to learn how to use them to consciously construct a work. Right now, she tosses them all into the cabinet of curiosities. Wunderkammer, makes me wonder why.

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Julie Fotheringham
Performance: the Extra-Sensory Pedestrians
Choreographer:  Kimberly Young
Venue: Joyce Soho, New York City
Date: Feb. 20, 2009
www.iDANZOnline.com

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