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Keigwin + Company = Showtime
Keigwin + Company, six dancers performing highlights from Larry Keigwin's diverse repertoire, dazzle with dynamite physicality and dance that resonates.
By QUINN BATSON
Offoffoff.com
For his first evening-length concert, Larry Keigwin and his Company
put together five solid pieces that held four amazing,
rip-it-up and nail-it-down solos.
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| KEIGWIN + COMPANY | Choreography by: Larry Keigwin.
Dancers: Alexander Gish, Verena Tremel, Larry Keigwin, Ashley Gilbert, Nicole Wolcott, Julian Barret.
| | SCHEDULE | Joyce SoHo
155 Mercer (btw. Houston and Prince)
Feb. 28 - March 2, 2003
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His own solo, "Sunshine," tickles at first, breaking the audience in
with humor and whimsy, and then it slams into an ending with enough
drama and power to completely erase the initial titillation of
watching a man dance in his tighty-whitey underwear. Throughout, his
quick fluidity and elastic power keep anticipation high.
As in all the pieces of the evening, his is movement married to
music, with songs as well cast as the four dancers who join him in
the second piece, "Tetris." This is a group of five beautiful dancers
on the same page, and the energy bouncing between them quickly fills
the room. Though "Tetris" is based on the ubiquitous early video game,
it only touches the feeling of the game occasionally, in moments of
quickly reorienting pieces and in a very convincing simulation of the
increasing pace and tension of a tetris game sustained for more than
a few minutes. Again, this piece begins in a state of whimsy and
progresses to another level, ending with a play on the interaction of
people and the loneliness of the person-piece that ultimately doesn't
fit and ends the game of interaction.
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"Female Portraits" must be one of the strongest trio of solos ever put
together in one piece. The premise of putting each grown woman back
in her own adolescent bedroom is perfectly realized three times, with
each woman embodying her chosen singer and song. Bjork, or Verena
Tremel, lines the perimeter of her bedroom, cleverly lit as the
outline of four walls on the floor by technical director Julie Ana
Dobo, with stuffed animals. Tremel then proceeds to match the magic
of Bjork's voice with the magic of her own dancing, capturing the
power of the seemingly little girl who is fully a woman.
Pat Benatar,
or Nicole Wolcott, struts in with her sleeveless heavy metal T-shirt
and proceeds to turn it up in her much larger midwestern bedroom,
pausing briefly to do a bit of female John Jasperse-ish chest dancing
to lyrics about "both of us . . ."
Cut the lights to hear Annie Lennox,
or Ashley Gilbert, stalking around her bedroom in her night-clubbing
boots, peeling off her clothes as she returns home to her stylishly
minimal two-walled bedroom. She then burns the house down with the
torch of her body, matching the sultriness of Annie Lennox's voice and
finding the pyrotechnics, too.
After so much power, "Straight Duet" is somewhat sad. A vertical
slice of bed separates a just-married couple on their wedding night,
she excited and hopeful, slowly stripping while he pumps himself up
anxiously like a preacher preparing to give a sermon. As the bed
becomes horizontal by her falling into it, the struggle begins, and
after many near-misses of connection, the bed finally becomes a wall
again and the two go their separate ways. The sheer physicality of
the dancing and Wolcott's hungry performance keep this piece alive,
though.
With Alexander Gish and Wolcott, Keigwin puts together a dancing
trio of similarly brilliant movement quality. "Urban Birds" is a quirky
piece that sums up Keigwin's style, classical movements quickly
flicking into exuberant leaps, bodies throwing themselves into the
hands of others, bits of synchronicity slipping into individual
split-offs, idiosyncratic whimsical movements that entertain and
amuse mixed with power and technique.
Keigwin + Company is a well-matched group of dancers that compels
attention and radiates energy.
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MARCH 4, 2003
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
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