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| | Photo by Aldo Mauro | | | Tricia Brouk en rose
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Dining Alone has its Virtues
Tricia Brouk's evening-length Dining Alone is a pleasant after-dinner drink
By QUINN BATSON
Offoffoff.com
Tricia Brouk has a soothing and consistently fun way of moving that keeps whatever she is dancing fresh. Strong ballet chops and a languidly fluid delivery help her dance subtle comedy well. And subtle comedy was the main course on the menu in her evening-length solo show "Dining Alone."
The first of five solos was choreographed by the versatile Dusan Tynek, who put Brouk in a piece inspired by Edgar Degas' painting "The Absinthe Drinker." A heavily drunk Brouk in 1860s dress enters a cafe and orders absinthe from the waiter, then proceeds through the complicated process of drinking it and slowly enters into a dance on the tops of four tables. Her transition from passing-out drunk to dancing round the cafe is really well done, an impressive combination of choreography and performance.
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| TRICIA BROUK: DINING ALONE | Choreography by: Dusan Tynek, Eun Me Ahn, Tricia Brouk, Annie-B Parson.
Directed by: Joe Ricci.
Dancers: Tricia Brouk, with acting interludes by Kenwyn Dapo, Beau Hancock, Sara Milosevich, Dared Wright.
Music by: Alec Berlin.
Costumes by: Rusty Aubrey, A. Christina Giannini, Annie-B Parson, Karen Young.
Lighting design by: Kathy Kaufman.
| | SCHEDULE | Dance Theater Workshop Guest Artist Series
June 28-30, 2007
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The second was Eun Me Ahn's "Boxing Queen," a stars-and-stripes wearing boxer dancing and boxing to Abba's "Dancing Queen." It's a fun, light piece with a little darkness added by four onstage spectators who largely ignore the boxer unless she looks to be in trouble. The opening, though, an inverted shoulder-blade dance performed to a goose soundtrack, is striking.
"Crossing" lets Brouk have fun dancing to catchy music by Alec Berlin on her way to a spotlit "destination," ony to be interrupted by a couple of cellphone calls from her mother and a too-serious friend. The ending is a cute bit of lighting design by Kathy Kaufman.
A pretty piece of dancing in a pretty piece of clothing to music by Stravinsky, Annie-B Parson's "Short Ride Out" is prefaced by an interesting mix of nocturnal sounds and the four actors walking back and forth across stage in a clever interlude.
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| | her transition from passing-out drunk to dancing round the cafe is. . . an impressive combination of choreography and performance |
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The evening ended a bit theatrically in front of banks of flattering footlights with Brouk dancing her "Rose" to Louis Armstrong playing "La Vie en Rose." Again, good lighting design enhanced this piece and its ending.
The choices Brouk made in choreography and in using director Joe Ricci to stage the interludes between pieces gave the evening a comfortable and cohesive feel, and her dancing carried the choreography with grace and style. There was nothing particularly challenging for the audience, but the consistently pleasurable show was easy to watch.
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JULY 6, 2007
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
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