May 26-June 1, 2005

artpicks

Dark Alley

by Deni Kasrel

dance

Dancer/choreographer George Alley stands 6'2" tall, so perhaps it's only natural that he's drawn to characters that are larger than life. He's a big fan of Martha Graham, bona fide queen of exaggerated stage drama. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford are two more faves, along with Alfred Hitchcock. "A lot of my dance has to do with pop culture," says Alley (in photo, at right). "I like film noir where there's a dark edge and this sort of over-the-top campiness."

Sugar Shakes (Sloppy States of the Crematory Virgin), one of two works Alley Ink presents at the Ethical Society this weekend, is about tranny whores, rape and murder, where suspense is colored by humor. "But it's not ha, ha humor," Alley notes. Paint it black and garnish with sly asides that owe lineage to David Lynch. The Primrose Path concerns a woman with a past who comes into town and causes one heck of a commotion. While Alley says he used Hitchcock's The Birds as a launching point for his "seductive hallucination," he says there's more to it. "I'm not interested in telling the narrative of a Hitchcock movie, but rather using that to inspire me to create an atmosphere the audience can relate to. There's a whole psychodrama that anyone can identify with."

Also on the program are works by Abby Zbikowski and Yellow #5 Performance Group, presenting a low-budget puppet rendering of the original Star Wars trilogy in an amazing nine minutes.

Alley Ink/George Alley Dance, Fri., May 27 and Sat., May 28, 8 p.m., $10, Philadelphia Ethical Society, 1906 Rittenhouse Square, 215-735-3456, www.georgealley.com.