More about Ek's Casi-Casa

More about Ek's piece Casi-Casa set on Hubbard Street.

Let me tell you more about Casi-Casa.  Or rather let me tell you about what it did for Hubbard Street, because it seems to me that is what I'm mostly jazzed about.  Viewing dance is all about context.  Who that viewer is, what they've seen before, what they are expecting, what they see in that moment and how it relates to what came directly before and after it.  Dance criticism is a whole different animal and I'm not going there.  I could, I have skills, I'm just more interested in telling you about why a modern dancer from the midwest with my background might see things the way she does.

Jumping to my expectations (you can look up my who and what on my website): Before I moved to Florida for 3 years, I had a number of conversations with different dancers about many companies including Hubbard Street.  They're the big modern game in town, so they come up quite a bit.  This is the number one sentiment I heard from people: "Don't get me wrong, they've got lovely dancers, but their choreography..."  And it trails off in various ways after that.  Talking about "lovely dancers" is dance world speak for "don't waste your money".  I use it constantly.  After all, the buck stops at the Artistic Director.  You've got the talent, don't waste it.  But, what has happened in the last few years since I left and came back? New Artistic Director Glenn Edgerton is what.  Same thing that happened to Luna Negra and others.  Their direction is what makes me excited about American modern dance again.  Them and the Cuban influx.  It's about time we had a revitalization!

So how does this fit in to my viewing experience?  I was expecting lovely dancers and I was questioning how they might handle Ek's work.  I mean, what could possibly compare to Sylvie Guillem in Ek's Wet Woman?  I must admit, my excitement was mostly about Ek's work and not about Hubbard Street, so when they did a fair job of it, I was very excited, especially considering the previous three pieces in the program (Untouched by Azure Barton and 2 others from Alejandro Cerrudo) which were more in Hubbard's zone of comfort.  How these previous three pieces played out, so strong in technical prowess, drama, and the highlighting of the human body (yes even Cerrudo's minimal Blanco was all about the body's prowess), really set the stage for Ek's focus on human interaction and his strength for moving bodies around the stage to reveal a landscape or a mood.

It was much less about the dancers' technical abilities as it was about how they could relax into the difficult movement tasks given to them and reveal what is at the heart of it.  Quinn Wharton's opening and closing solos weren't as grounded as I wanted them to be, although I've seen him in rehearsals (the plus-side of Hubbard Street's rehearsals often being next door to their open classes) for other works display the ease needed to sink into a work like Ek's.  The gravitas needed to really pin down a role like that just hasn't made its way into this particular performance yet.  It's all about that delicate line between doing and being, showing and revealing.  Don't hate me Quinn - you're so pretty and I like your shoulder-girdle mobility.  I told someone that loudly within earshot of someone else who I thought might pass the info along to the powers-that-be, so you're welcome.

Another moment I have a question about was the militant housewives with the dragging vacuum cleaners.  A hilarious section complete with bagpiping music (all the more funny given their implements of cleanliness) and dancing that gave a little send-up to traditional step dancing was overdone by angry outbursts from the women.  By itself, the section is brilliant, but all previous verbal outburst we at the top of the emotion spectrum as well, so this one played overwrought.  That being said, the housewife of this section, whose name eludes me (Anna?), was spot on.  Holy crap.  Her emotional depth in this role was certainly equal to that of Meredith Dincolo's striking opening solo in Azure Barton's Untouched.  Everyone else paled in comparison to her bound-up Housewife, and I wanted it that way.  A little salt on my meal, thank you.

A couple of words about the empty stage, caution tape, and blaring music:  You tease. I liked it, music might read... on the annoying side of startling, nice placement, and thank the good lord of dance it didn't come after the baby-oven scene.

I described, with zeal, this piece to my college students who were not impressed and made faces at my descriptions.  Ha!  I guess this means this work isn't for everyone, but I like to think it is for people who are especially interested in the messy and often banal intricacies of life.

The end.

Double Dance Show Weekend

My single dance date turned into a double dance date! My husband and I met my dancer friend Kelly Anderson at Kate Corby's show "Passing" at Links Hall this past Saturday. We had a chance to chat with Kristina Fluty about life and school and Kate, herself, about the dance scene in Chicago. Then I scored a cheap-seat at Hubbard Street's Show "Transcendent" today at the Harris Theater to see Mats Ek's premier Casi-Casa.

Kate's show, about life and death, was made more full in the intimacy of Links hall by the ambient sounds from the passing trains and party-goers on the busy Saturday night.  It was only a welcome intrusion because the casual nature of the choreography.  Dressed in street-clothes and alternately tossing themselves about or lightly placing their gestures about the space, we felt as if the cycle of life and death wasn't too heavy or heady of a topic but something that just happens or slowly floods into one's experience.

The highlight of Kate's show was definitely the duet between Josh Anderson and Michelle Scurlock. Vacillating between linear movement phrases and repetitive gesture we get a glimpse into a relationship that is complicated, a little competitive and often hilarious in the most understated way.  This understated hilarity is mostly in thanks to Michelle Scurlock's deft looks at Josh which manage to be just at the right moments and neither too subtle or too imposing.  She also has the fastest arms in Chicago.

My dance weekend then went from 10's of seats to 100's of seats with my trip to the Harris.  I've been dying to see more European choreographers.  It's not often that I get to see their work live (money, proximity, etc.) so I was so excited to see this show.  Although Canadian Aszure Barton's piece "Untouched" was a dramatic hit, the highlight of the show was certainly Swedish choreographer Mats Ek's piece Casi-Casa.  Finally a break from the relentless ballet vocabulary!  It was full of emotion without beating you over the head with it.  The emotion came from the pedestrian movement, the spare household objects that had a life of their own and the little bursts of sound and often incomprehensible words from the dancers.  I bumped into Dr. Green and his wife from Columbia College afterwards and they were discussing how the Ek piece had a taste of Pina and a clear influence from Ek's time spent working with Nederlands.  I could go on, but I want it to settle first.  I'm sure I'll have dreams tonight of roll-stepping pedestrians, militant housewives, and complicit furniture.