The group presents a challenging, fun, gender-bending, James-Dean-inspired trio at Dance Theater Workshop this week.  It is an evening filled with inspired dancing and the witty use of both text and music.

As the lights come up, Michelle Boulé appears seated in a chair, wearing a red jacket and jeans, seemingly dressed as James Dean.  She speaks almost incomprehensibly into a mike, before falling drunkenly to the floor.  I enjoy the confusion of listening as hard as I can; attempting to make sense of her words, but only catching snippets of meaning.  Boulé so fully embodies the character that, even in my confusion, I trust her to take me on this ride.  Then enters Tarek Halaby, dressed as a woman in a wig of curly brown hair and a long blue skirt; he moves with a strikingly authentic femininity.  The pair perform a duet at the edge of the stage, subtly introducing their characters to the audience using subtle and well-crafted body language as their dance vocabulary.  Eventually, Gutierrez joins the pair onstage, at which point the now-trio busts out a section full of dreamy arabesques and stretchy backbends.

One of my favorite parts begins with Boulé and Halaby acting out a scene in which they are the characters from a James Dean movie. Upon reaching the end of the scene, they immediately start again from the beginning.  This time, however, Gutierrez says their lines over-top of them, as if he had seen this movie a million times and can recite all of the lines of all the characters. When the scene begins for a third time, Gutierrez takes over Boulé’s voice completely, while she performs a slow solo; dancing in a downstage spotlight, seeming almost to be having an out-of-body experience.  Boulé rejoins the others, all three pick up scripts, and they begin to recite.  Gutierrez, with the mike in his mouth, reads everyone’s lines with them; the distorted sound lending a sinister feeling to the whole business… The intensity builds as the reading get faster, louder, and more frantic.  Finally, Gutierrez spits out the mike; the others ask him, “What’s your problem?” to which he responds, “I don’t know, but it’s gone now.”  Finding this to be an acceptable answer, the two join Gutierrez for a trio in which each move is announced before it is performed.  The anticipation of seeing what the move will be, after hearing the name, is intensely satisfying, especially with these three creative, beautiful dancers.

One more time, the cast recites their story; then, they strip down to their underwear, shedding their personas along with their clothes.  As pop music blares, the dancers are free, leaping and bounding through the space.  In an exhilarating moment, Gutierrez jumps into the audience, dripping sweat, and climbs up onto the arms of a chair.  When he looks like he will lose his balance, the audience reaches out to support him.  Using their support, he crosses over to the other side of the theater on the arms of the seats, runs back down to the stage, and executes a beautiful series of leaps, as if to say “I am free.”  With the freedom celebration over, the performers collect their clothes and exit the space as a new, younger version of the trio enters, performing even as the original trio bows and the audience leaves.  Brilliant!

‘Last Meadow’ creates a world that I don’t understand but excited to explore with these three amazing dancers.  Miguel Gutierrez is exceptionally creative and smart.  …Now while I am on my way to rent a James Dean movie, you go see this dance.

iDANZ Critix Corner Official Dance Review by Hope Davis  Performance:  Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People, ‘Last Meadow’ Choreography: Miguel Gutierrez Venue:  Dance Theater Workshop (DTW), New York City Performance Date:  Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 www.iDANZ.com

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The program is split into two halves, the first of which consists of two works by Chamberlin.  The first piece is a virtuosic study in speed, balance, and precision; performed by Chamberlin, himself.  Backed by a haunting score, providing more mood than melody, he executes a repeating series of poses; each flowing into the next, often on one leg, always perfectly placed.  As the dance progresses, the tempo gradually increases until, at the end, Chamberlin is a blur of speed moving continuously through each pose; never faltering, always calmly and coolly in control.

Rounding out the first half of the program is a duet for two jaw-droppingly gorgeous dancers, Hsiao-Jou Tang and Shayla-Vie Jenkins.  Full of swift, fluid movement, the piece is flawlessly performed by the two long-legged beauties. Chamberlin shows an incredible awareness of space; using movement to highlight the stage and the distance between the dancers, he allows the space to become almost a third performer.  Amongst this, the dancers seamlessly slip in and out of a series of counter-balances, somehow always finding their way back to their own power.

The second half of the program is a single piece by Petroliunas in which she invites the audience into a special world full of origami frogs, Christmas trees, secret notes, and luscious movement.  For me, though, the magic actually starts with intermission where the dancers, who are about to perform, come out to help direct the audience in shifting our seats about the space to form three sides of a square.   As people carry their chairs, they have to move through the performance space and, as they do so, dancers greet friends in the audience with hugs and chat just as easily with strangers.   In that moment, everything is easy and accessible; a feeling Petroliunas then carries forward through her whole piece.

The piece starts in truth with Lesley Garrison walking around and turning on house lamps which warmly light the space.  She then joins the other five white-clad dancers, at which point they all burst into full-bodied, individual movement.

A favorite moment comes when Tang instructs the audience in folding a white square of paper which each person is given during intermission.  After many steps she chimes, “if you did it right, it’s a frog.”  Mine doesn’t quite look like a frog, but as Julia Burrer comes around to collect the frogs into a cereal box she reassures each person, “don’t worry, they are all beautiful.”  Later, our slightly misshapen, but "beautiful" frogs are strewn on the floor in a long path only to be picked up again and then scattered on another part of the floor.

Later, members of one half of the audience are handed school milk cartons and told to read the message inside.  Following the message, which instructs us to go to the window and look outside, we see Burrer and Tang standing on the sidewalk, two floors down.  They perform a beautiful duet which is also performed inside the space by another couple.  For a moment, I feel sorry for the rest of the audience, which doesn’t get to share the magic of viewing the duet through the window, with all of the absurd, juxtaposed beauty of cars, bikes, and other passers-by; but then I realize that they are all sharing in an equally odd experience that I am missing: watching the same duet while half the audience turns their backs and looks out the window!

In another moment, audience members are brought into the space, seemingly invited to shift their perspective.  The dance continues around these new, living set pieces until the dancers climb out a window and origami birds are set free, ending the piece.

Each part of the evening is an amazing display of dance, an yet the show as a whole is still greater than the sum of its incredible parts.  My advice is that the next time you have a chance to see choreography by Peter Chamberlin and Nora Petroliunas just put down the bag of Doritos, get off the couch, and go see the show!

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Hope Davis 
Performance: Dear Peter, Love, Nora
Choreography:  Peter Chamberlin and Nora Petroliunas
Venue: 100 Grand Street, New York City Performance
Date:  Saturday, August 29th, 2009
www.iDANZ.com

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