{"id":1364,"date":"2013-02-07T15:25:05","date_gmt":"2013-02-07T20:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/?p=1364"},"modified":"2013-02-08T10:17:22","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T15:17:22","slug":"erotic-geometry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/2013\/02\/erotic-geometry\/","title":{"rendered":"Erotic Geometry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Members<\/a>

Members of Armitage Gone! Dance in Mechanics of a Dance Machine<\/em>; foreground: Cristian Laverde K\u00f6nig. Photo: Yi-Chun Wu<\/p><\/div>\n

When I look closely at a broccoli floret, I don\u2019t ponder fractal geometry; I may marvel at images derived from Fibonacci sequences, but I don\u2019t pretend to understand Walsh functions. Choreographer Karole Armitage might consider me an intellectual wimp. Her Three Theories<\/em> premiered in 2010 at the World Science Festival.<\/p>\n

Although Armitage\u2019s new Mechanics of the Dance Machine<\/em> at New York Live Arts (1\/31-2\/2 and 2\/7-9) attests to her ongoing fascination with physics, you don\u2019t need to see her sources reflected in the choreography in order to be intrigued by the patterns she devises. This isn\u2019t one of those occasions when you read an ambitious program note and then look at the dance it purports to elucidate and say, \u201chuh?\u201d<\/p>\n

What you see onstage (and, because of a schedule screw-up, I saw the piece at its final dress rehearsal) has a logic whose presence you deduce. Like Merce Cunningham, in whose company Armitage danced for a number of years, she often presents the space as an open field in which various events occur simultaneously or succeed one another or pass through. You don\u2019t question why the dancers are doing what they\u2019re doing. On the other hand, she performed in a number of Balanchine\u2019s ballets during her young days dancing with the Grand Ballet de G\u00e9n\u00e8ve, and her present style can be considered as a juiced-up descendant of Balanchine\u2019s approach to scores by Stravinsky or Hindemith.<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/a>

Daniel LaMont Moore (foreground); behind, and to his left, Megumi Eda. Photo: Yi-Chun Wu<\/p><\/div>\n

The apparent irregularity of choreographic patterns and encounters in Mechanics of the Dance Machine <\/em>plays against and within Clifton Taylor\u2019s extraordinary collaborative lighting design. His palette is heavy on reds. At times the white floor becomes a checkerboard of red and white squares, but the size and number of squares may vary, or appear in the more conventional black and white. He also creates aisles of light, or makes the front half of the area bright and the back dark, or turns the whole floor red.<\/p>\n

Mechanics<\/em> is set to Gabriel Prokofiev\u2019s Concerto For Turntables And Orchestra<\/em>, performed in a recording by DJ Yoda & the Heritage Orchestra. The remixes include works by Monster Bobby, Kreepa, and Medasyn; an exerpt from J.S. Bach\u2019s Keyboard Concerto No.1 in D Minor<\/em> sneaks in as a tuneful surprise. Craig Leon\u2019s \u201cFour Eyes to See the Afterlife\u201d from the album Nommos also figures in the dance.<\/p>\n

\"(L<\/a>

(L to R): Masayo Yamaguchi, Lourdes Rodriguez, and Ahmaud Oliver connect. Photo: Yi-Chun Wu<\/p><\/div>\n

Through this visual-aural landscape prowl eight members of Armitage Gone! Dance, two guest artists (Charles Askegard and Cristian Laverde K\u00f6nig), and five women who are part of the company\u2019s Professional Project. The men wear light-brown briefs and the women even briefer panties and bras edged in red, with a few red dresses worn by the Professional Project dancers (costumes by Alba Clemente and Deanna Berg MacLean). I say \u201cprowl\u201d because the dancers often move like animals out hunting\u2014sleek, hot, hungry, and calculatingly skillful. The principal women are sometimes on pointe, sometimes in flesh colored socks, and little that they do looks \u201cbeautiful\u201d in a balletic way. The adept cast members throw their legs around in precise abandon\u2014 perhaps swinging one leg to the side or back and then pulling it around to the front and beyond, bending forward as they do so (the butt presentation is a frequent occurrence). When two or more dancers meet, they form unusual, sometimes bizarre, interlocking designs. The effect is fiercely sensual, but without lasting dramatic intent.<\/p>\n

The beginning sets the hot-cool ambiance. The splendid Megumi Eda makes an appearance downstage right. A short distance away, Abby Roesner is preoccupied with her own preening dance. Beyond them, two couples\u2014Lourdes Rodriguez and Jeffrey Sousa, Ahmaud Culver and Masayo Yamaguchi\u2014engage in different intimate pursuits, the women on pointe. One memorable image: Sousa cradles Rodriguez in front of him; she\u2019s lying on her belly in his arms in a ballet-swan position that rightfully would be seen flying overhead. He lowers her to the floor without breaking her line, looking as if he\u2019s considering eating her, daring anyone to take her from him.<\/p>\n

\"Jeffrey<\/a>

Jeffrey Sousa, lowers Lourdes Rodriguez. At left: Masayo Yamaguchi. Photo: Yi-Chun Wu<\/p><\/div>\n

Clearly this tribe values aggressive heterosexuality. K\u00f6nig watches Roesner from a crouched, hunched posture before closing in on her. Sousa whispers in Yamaguchi\u2019s ear\u2014perhaps challenging her to their ensuing combative duet. The five women from the Professional Project sit along the rim of the area of light where Askegard bends Emily Wagner to his will, looking somewhat courtly, even though he has to rub his leg up her thigh; the watching women shift into various aggressive postures like grounded predatory birds awaiting the outcome. (The second week of Armitage Gone! Dance, K\u00f6nig replaces Askegard, who\u2019s performing up the street at the Joyce with Jacqulyn Buglisi\u2019s company.)<\/p>\n

\"Cristian<\/a>

Cristian Laverde K\u00f6nig eyes Abby Roesner. Photo: Yi-Chun Wu<\/p><\/div>\n

Eda epitomizes the Armitage dancer. In her various appearances in this piece, including in a meaty solo, she displays her lithe, leggy beauty. She uses her long body as a snake would, sliding it into surprising angles and curves. A brilliant performer, she has been a vital part of Armitage Gone! Dance for ten years. This season marks her last with the company. Our loss.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to convey in words the complexity and variety of Armitage\u2019s choreography for this work. The patterns form, accumulate, dissolve\u2014sometimes visible only briefly. You occasionally sense a build in terms of ebb and flow, but Mechanics of the Dance Machine<\/em> doesn\u2019t work toward a climax. If you take \u201cmechanics\u201d to refer to the dancers rather than to a process, then you could say that they\u2019re constantly tinkering with the machine\u2019s parts\u2014fitting this to that, disconnecting something else, trying out new supplies in various combinations. But their demeanor is anything but workmanlike. Each coupling, each linkage, has the intensity of an erotic encounter, with us as fascinated voyeurs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I look closely at a broccoli floret, I don\u2019t ponder fractal geometry; I may marvel at images derived from Fibonacci sequences, but I don\u2019t pretend to understand Walsh functions. Choreographer Karole Armitage might consider me an intellectual wimp. Her Three Theories premiered in 2010 at the World Science Festival. Although Armitage\u2019s new Mechanics of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109],"tags":[627,623,561,222,620,624,626,622,618,625,621,628,619],"class_list":{"0":"post-1364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-contemporary-dance","8":"tag-abby-roesner","9":"tag-ahmaud-oliver","10":"tag-charles-askegard","11":"tag-clifton-brown","12":"tag-cristian-laverde-konig","13":"tag-daniel-lamont-moore","14":"tag-emily-wagner","15":"tag-jeffrey-sousa","16":"tag-karole-armitage","17":"tag-lourdes-rodriguez","18":"tag-masayo-yamaguchi","19":"tag-mechanics-of-the-dance-machine","20":"tag-megumi-edo","21":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}