Miguel Gutierrez and The Powerful People

Last weekend I saw Miguel Gutierrez and The Powerful People at the MCA.  They performed And Lose the Name of Action to a bemused, stunned and sage crowd.  As I sat there with my old Milwaukee friend that just moved to something like 30 different states and then to Chicago within a year, I pointed out no less than 10 Chicago dance makers that I could name.  There were more dancers that I recognized from classes, but you get it.  Sage crowd.

Then I read this review by Laura Molzahn for See Chicago Dance... that was less than enthusiastic.  I was instantly reminded of the kerfuffle over Macaulay's review of Tere O'Connor.  Why do things have to "develop", have to elicit emotion?

I thought the piece was brilliant and that the performers were so amazing I kept staring at each of them in turn and re-reading their bios because their performances were so unaffected.  And for this reason alone I could call the performance brilliant, but there was much more.

Yes, it was 10 minutes too long, but that could've been because I was on a completely unforgiving metal chair.  The rest of the experience was a breath of fresh air in a town full of high legs and pointed toes.