{"id":1698,"date":"2013-06-02T13:16:14","date_gmt":"2013-06-02T17:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/?p=1698"},"modified":"2013-06-06T18:23:17","modified_gmt":"2013-06-06T22:23:17","slug":"tell-me-a-story-and-another-and-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/2013\/06\/tell-me-a-story-and-another-and-another\/","title":{"rendered":"Tell Me a Story, and Another and Another"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tiffany Mills Company presents two new works at BAM Fishman.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Kevin<\/a>

Kevin Ho lifting Jeffrey Duval in Tiffany Mills’ The Feast (Part 1)<\/em>. Photo: Julie Lemberger<\/p><\/div>\n

Remember when dancers rarely talked onstage?\u00a0 No? Then you\u2019re probably still in your twenties. Beginning in the 1980s, when narrative and emotion began to slip\u00a0 back into contemporary American dance and knock its movement-and-form-only stance askew, some choreographers tackled stories that couldn\u2019t be told through dancing alone. Personal narratives, revamped fairy tales, social and political messages\u2014all needed the spoken word. In Tiffany Mills\u2019s Berries and Bulls<\/i>, her four seasoned performers talk a lot. And what performers! Jeffrey Duval, Kevin Ho, Emily Pope-Blackman, and Petra van Noort are not only gifted dancers, they\u2019re strong actors\u2014delivering text that they, Mills, dramaturge Peter Petralia, and editing advisor Kay Cummings have created. Their truthfulness and lack of affectation can be extremely moving.<\/p>\n

Restructured from a 2012 work, with the addition of a cadre of ten guest performers, Berries and Bulls<\/i> was announced for the Tiffany Mills Company\u2019s BAM Fisher season as a world premiere, along with The Feast (Part 1).<\/i> The title of the former isn\u2019t much of a clue to its subject. The only berries in evidence are the strawberries eaten by Ho, van Noort and seven of the ten guest performers, as they settle down to hear Pope-Blackman (with three wild-girl, back-up vocalists) sing and yell increasingly harassing commands to Duval, who, draped in a white-feather boa, is attempting to entertain the crowd. At an earlier point, while Duval is continuously butting Pope-Blackman with his chest, she tells him not to act like a bull. Later, there are references to monsters, or possible monsters. After van Noort tries to rouse the recumbent, nestled-together Duval and Ho with the words a mother might use to kids she thinks may be playing dead to tease her, the two men scrabble after her, bellowing and snarling.<\/p>\n

Nine diverse musical selections (starting with Janis Joplin singing \u201cCry Baby\u201d) punctuate most of the talking sections, and Ian Task has created a mysterious set that consists of several variously sized towers made of tattered law books.\u00a0 These cluster in one corner, and a couple of low ones give the performers something to rest on. Paper also figures thematically. As the piece begins, Duval is folding paper airplanes. Later, he\u2019s ordered to sit down and fold some more until he\u2019s calmer. At various times, the little planes are launched or carried across, bearing their multiple allusions to flight, freedom, hobbies, and schoolroom tricks. Duval rolls with one stuck on his nose.<\/p>\n

\"L<\/a>

L to R: Jeffrey Duval, Kevin Ho, and Petra van Noort in Tiffany Mills’ Berries and Bulls<\/em>. Photo: Julie Lemberger<\/p><\/div>\n

In this world that Mills has created, there are no fixed relationships; we experience Berries and Bulls <\/i>as a series of incidents that have common qualities. Sometimes the boundary between the four as collaborating dancer-actors working on a project (they address one another by their real names and occasionally issue instructions) and the characters they portray, who may or may not be members of a family, is porous. The ten additional dancers\u2014who occasionally rush in, watch the action, echo or join what the four are doing\u2014convey the idea that Mills wants us to see the issues as universal and the action as shifting as that of a dream.<\/p>\n

And what is Mills\u2019s subject?\u00a0 Generally speaking, it\u2019s relationships and the mixed signals we send to our loved ones. She seems to be trying to do something very difficult: to weave a number of emotion-laden strands together with a deliberate elusiveness, so that, together, they can be interpreted in more ways than one. For instance, near the end of Berries and Bulls<\/i>, a buried story pokes through the texture of desires, thwarted intimacy, and rage. For a few moments, Pope-Blackman and Duval cuddle around Ho like sleepy children, while he speaks dreamily of the starry night, the salty ocean breeze, and a ferris wheel. Suddenly Pope-Blackman awakes. That\u2019s not her <\/i>memory. She talks of being left alone by him (just for a few minutes, he pleads)\u2014left to lurking monsters, or her terror of them. \u201cI did see you with the bull,\u201d he says inscrutably.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s intriguing about Berries and Bulls<\/i> is also what can be confusing\u2014even maddening\u2014about it: the contrast among the performers\u2019 physical skills, their very adult delivery of the words, and the fact that the words themselves and some of the actions that accompany them suggest children. The exhausted dialogue between Ho and Pope-Blackman seems to be that between a remembered child and her father, but it could well be a scene between a resentful woman and her lover or husband. (While it\u2019s happening, you remember earlier enigmatic words that could allude to this same screw-up on the man\u2019s part.)<\/p>\n

\"Emily<\/a>

Emily Pope-Blackman and Kevin Ho in Berries and Bulls<\/em>. Photo: Julie Lemberger<\/p><\/div>\n

The rational and the irrational rub against each other. Sometimes the performers talk matter-of-factly. Sometimes, if they\u2019re moving furiously and talking at the same time, the words come out in yells and gasps. Pope-Blackman dances intensely, as if she\u2019s going through a solo she needs to master, or trying to focus her thoughts. \u201cDon\u2019t touch me,\u201d she says to Ho. He begins charging her dangerously, and she keeps telling him to stop, but as his interference escalates into lifts, she begins to like what\u2019s happening. When they finish, she looks at him and says, ambiguously, \u201cyep.\u201d Duval wants to jump over and over, with Ho\u2019s help. \u201cHigher,\u201d he keeps panting, \u201chigher!\u201d Until Ho puts a stop to it.<\/p>\n

Mills comes close to overusing escalation. Repeated actions tend to build in terms of speed and violence; anyone can stop a situation by saying, \u201ccut.\u201d Once, when Pope-Blackman is dancing alone, Ho starts smacking the floor rhythmically with his hand. Faster and harder he hits. Trying to incite her to speed up? Maybe. To assert his control over her? Perhaps. This solo by Pope-Blackman is one of the most imaginative moments of dancing\u2014intense, emotionally fueled, but controlled and variegated, wonderful to watch. In general, the movement is big, hot, and fierce, much of it related to the task at hand: Duval and Ho, scrubbing each other furiously; people tackling one another, yanking a downed adversary by one leg. When the four dance\u2014alone or together\u2014the movement seems to be a metaphor for a common task or desired harmony<\/p>\n

There are quieter, tenderer moments\u2014some of them very touching. Duval seems always anxious for approval, for recognition, whether he\u2019s bellicose or forlorn. In fact, there are many powerful episodes in Berries and Bulls. <\/i>But something about it feels unfulfilled, and at times the text-dancing relationship becomes banal or too obvious, given the enigmatic nature of the whole. I begin to sense little signs of restlessness in the audience, a quiet sigh or two, a shifting of positions. Several times, we expect the piece to end, and it doesn\u2019t. For instance, Duval suddenly tossing sheets of paper into a storm seems like a climactic act, even though it evades easy interpretation. But Mills hasn\u2019t finished yet.<\/p>\n

\"Emily<\/a>

Emily Pope-Blackman (L) and Petra van Noort in Tiffany Mills’ The Feast (Part 1)<\/em>. Photo: Julie Lemberger<\/p><\/div>\n

Maybe the sheer length of the work is a liability. Too, it comes after The Feast (Part 1)<\/i>, which will eventually acquire a second half. \u00a0There are no words in this one, but it introduces us to Mills\u2019 interest in physically intense interactions and her ability to construct them. The Feast<\/i> consists of three duets, set to a compellingly disruptive music composed, performed, and engineered by Jonathan Melville Pratt (one section is for pencil on mat-board, strings, voice, and \u201cvariously created synthesizers\u201d).<\/p>\n

In the first duet, Mills herself mimes scribbling on the back wall where lighting designer Chris Hudacs has projected an amorphous design that could be bubbles or ghostly faces. \u00a0Her duet with Ho involves many variations on writing and the erasing of what\u2019s been written. The theme crops up again in a duet for van Noort and Pope-Blackman that takes place on the opposite side of the space. As the women tangle and press together in Hudacs\u2019 suddenly greenish light, van Noort forces Pope-Blackman to \u201cwrite\u201d on the wall, then bites her hand.<\/p>\n

For the encounter between Ho and Duval, Hudacs lights a central area. The two men move closer and closer together until they embrace. Here, Duval draws in air around Ho\u2019s body, and Ho uses his head to trace his companion\u2019s head. Later, they develop a strange image of erasure\u2014Ho rubbing Duval\u2019s back, Duval rubbing Ho\u2019s crotch.<\/p>\n

Maybe, in showing the to-be-completed Feast<\/i>, Mills wanted to introduce us to these remarkably interesting performers before launching Berries and Bulls<\/i>, but the 90-minute length of the performance (it includes a pause for costume changes and arranging Trask\u2019s set) contributes to the sense that Berries and Bulls <\/i>loses momentum as it wanders through its too-well-stocked storehouse of pungent episodes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tiffany Mills Company presents two new works at BAM Fishman. Remember when dancers rarely talked onstage?\u00a0 No? Then you\u2019re probably still in your twenties. Beginning in the 1980s, when narrative and emotion began to slip\u00a0 back into contemporary American dance and knock its movement-and-form-only stance askew, some choreographers tackled stories that couldn\u2019t be told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":[99],"tags":[430,814,816,818,813,817,815,812],"class_list":{"0":"post-1698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-dance-theater","7":"tag-emily-pope-blackman","8":"tag-jeffrey-duval","9":"tag-jonathan-melville-pratt","10":"tag-kay-cummings","11":"tag-kevin-ho","12":"tag-peter-petralia","13":"tag-petra-van-noort","14":"tag-tiffany-mills","15":"entry","16":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698","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=1698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}