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| Photo by Alex Escalante | L-R standing: Molly Poerstel, Jeanine Durning, Julian Barnett
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Nonstop Edge
Jeanine Durning's To Being at The Chocolate Factory
By QUINN BATSON
Offoffoff.com
"Thank you for coming" is a winning sentiment when it feels sincere, and Jeanine Durning's To Being does that. Durning and compatriots Julian Barnett and Molly Poerstel give their sweaty all, in a slightly crazy way that has audience concerned for everyone's safety. Healthy tension ensues.
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| | | JEANINE DURNING: TO BEING | Choreography by: Jeanine Durning.
Dancers: Julian Barnett, Jeanine Durning, Molly Poerstel.
Sound design by: Tian Rotteveel.
Lighting design by: Joe Levasseur.
| | SCHEDULE | The Chocolate Factory
September 9-26, 2015
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"Nonstopping" is the basis for both halves of this two-pronged performance — inging, a more vocal solo by Durning performed a week later, is the other half. Nonstopping is Durning's response to deadending on "choreographic constructions and the aesthetic narratives they ultimately point to." She makes a clear distinction between nonstop and continuous, in the program notes: "Whereas continuous implies "going with the flow,"nonstop points to the critical nature of what it takes to keep going in the midst of, and despite, questions, doubts, limitations, and, of course, inevitable failures."
Durning picked two excellent collaborators in Barnett and Poerstel. Each of the three is able to hold the stage on their own, with distinct energies and personas. Durning is a little intense and a little scary, especially when she is handling a heavy metal pipe that looks barely under her control. Barnett is whimsical and bouncy, and a bit of a mad scientist, albeit a friendly one, muttering to himself and various audience members as he figures angles and trajectories. Poerstel is the diehard, working herself to the last drop of fuel, manic until she can't be.
Also in the mix are live sound design by Tian Rotteveel and lighting design by Joe Levasseur. Both are by turns inobtrusive and unavoidably obvious, and both are integral to the overall experience. Levasseur' s lighting gives zones to space and time, and Rotteveel's tones and standing waves tickle the edge of sonic bearability while somehow staying beautiful and intriguing, like a Glenn Branca guitarfest.
This boundary-pushing is part of the performer-audience interplay also. With audience scattered around the single-room space, some are chosen for special attention, randomly or by design, and their reactions or non-reactions are as much a part of the show as any other element.
The overall experience is friendly and uncomfortable, testing and humorous, with each audience member finding their own place on these reaction axes.
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SEPTEMBER 22, 2015
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