April 25–May 2, 1996

critical mass

Performance In An Intimate Space (PIAIS)

Performance In An Intimate Space (PIAIS)

Humor was the unifying theme in the latest installment of the Performance In An Intimate Space (PIAIS) series at the Community Education Center. The fourth evening in this six-part series featured local choreographers Jeune Ji and Lorin Lyle, poet Ketan Ben Caesar, and New York performers Maja and Radoslav Lorkovic.

Jeune Ji opened the concert with Marry Me, a piece which made use of both spoken text and dance. Ji began by contrasting an elegant and occasionally prissy modern or balletic movement style with a more funky and occasionally silly one. She then posed the question that her movement had asked: "Does everyone have two sides?" In the witty monologue that followed, Ji enacted one side of her personality, begging the other to "marry me." A satirical look at relationships, Marry Me showcased Ji's light and fluid dancing and revealed her clever sense of humor. The opening movement section took a little too long to prove Ji's point, but the rest of the piece had a sharper clarity that I enjoyed.

In contrast, Maja Lorkovic's Price, featuring music by her brother Radoslav Lorkovic, remained an enigma. It appeared that Maja Lorkovic was attempting to create an amusing exploration of movement, using her five dancers to form unusual tableaus and maneuverings while often exhibiting an (I hope) intentional clumsiness. Maja Lorkovic did succeed in creating some interesting moments, such as when one dancer blew a piece of dust off another's foot, or when three dancers proceeded to walk across the stage with the middle one traveling upside-down. However, the piece as a whole suffered from a lack of any clear form or sense of continuity. Radislov Lorkovic's accordion music and vocals added a softer edge, but its randomness made the dance feel even choppier. Furthermore, his presence onstage, with a bored-looking slouch and smug grin, added yet another distracting and confusing element.

Lorin Lyle's Entrained was much clearer in its humorous intent. It began with dancers Van Grimes, Christy Lee and Lyle each performing a different phrase, which repeated throughout the body of the piece. When the music stopped, all three dancers stood upright and began panting from their earlier exertion. Lyle smartly allowed this moment to last long enough to be funny — and then, surprisingly, it became even funnier — before beginning a brief section of unison and eventually returning to the earlier "entrained" phrases. Although the piece was effective, my enjoyment of the movement was sacrificed by the costumes (a slightly baggy shirt over black tights which served to obscure part of the dancers' bodies) and by a lack of a defined relationship between the dancers, making the stage activity a little busy. I also would have liked to have seen a stronger use of Peter Price's music — although repetitive, there were some subtle developments that could have been reflected in the movement.

Poet Ketan Ben Caesar, or "K.B.C." as he called himself throughout his monologue, was certainly the funniest performer of the night. He closed out the evening with Resonations for the New Millennium, a self-described "text and poetic performance." Caesar made use of the theatrical setting to involve slides, music, props and costuming with his already well-known poetry. K.B.C. delighted the audience with lines like "You have the right to remain silent — use it!"; "My reality check bounced!"; and "I became a poet to pay the rent and put food on the table. I'd really like to deliver pizza for a living." Caesar's delivery was a little over-emphatic, and the piece was quite long, but his sense of humor and theatrics held everyone's attention.

The performance exemplified what the PIAIS series is supposed to be about — giving audiences the chance to see a variety of performance styles, and giving artists the challenge and opportunity to create a work for what is often, for them, an unusual environment.

— Amy Shuck