{"id":540,"date":"2008-05-17T14:40:35","date_gmt":"2008-05-17T21:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp\/2008\/05\/go_eleanor_bauers_at_large\/"},"modified":"2008-05-17T14:40:35","modified_gmt":"2008-05-17T21:40:35","slug":"go_eleanor_bauers_at_large","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/2008\/05\/go_eleanor_bauers_at_large.html","title":{"rendered":"GO: Eleanor Bauer’s “At Large”"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

“At Large” is
\nbursting with ideas, dances, experiments in approaching the audience and the
\nworld–probably too much of everything, with some of the connecting threads too
\nthin. But<\/span> how nice for a change, this rigorous excess rather than the usual dour
\nminimalism or clubby encodedness (like a party where every cluster
\nis a closed circle–to you, anyway, as you wander, with plastic cup of
\nbubbly water in hand.) Bauer
\nherself, who’s not even 30, is the perfect exemplar of her aesthetic– a bold,
\nbig-boned, luscious, comic dancer, elastic in her morphing from Broadway to
\nhiphop to bharatanatyam <\/i>to a modern-dance windy tangle of moves. The world is
\nher oyster–and she invites us in. <\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Anyway, you only
\nhave until tonight, Saturday, to catch it. At the Chocolate Factory Theater, 5-49 49th Ave., Long Island City, Queens.<\/span><\/font> <\/span><\/i><\/font>Visit Dtw.org for details.  <\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p>
One prong
\nof the “At Large” project–the show is only one aspect –is a lovely pocket-sized
\nbooklet that we all get a copy of when we attend the show. A whole bunch of
\ndancers and choreographers respond to questions with potentially no end to answers,
\nsuch as “Why do you dance?” “Why do you make dances?” “Why do you go to see
\ndance?” <\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>The answers get less interesting as they go. Almost everyone has something striking to
\nsay about why they dance. For example: “I dance because I started dancing when I was three and it’s
\nbecome a condition” and “Becoming a dancer was a way to give a body to my
\nlife, because I was very ghostly.” Fewer people get much out of watching other people<\/i>
\ndance. Most regard it as a professional obligation. Here’s a wry example: “[B]eing in the field for a long time, it’s very rare but
\nsometimes dance performances, the performers, the dances, can….touch me.” Hee hee<\/i>. <\/i>I also love this response:
\n“I’m looking for a complexity I understand, not a complexity that I feel I
\nshould understand and don’t.” Down with guilt-inducing obscurantism! <\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Speaking of which and otherwise apropos of nothing, here
\nare a couple of sentences from the eminently grouchy cultural critic Theodor Adorno. The
\nbook is his turgid yet intriguing Aesthetic
\nTheory<\/i>. <\/span>It has been lying around my apartment for a long while, and I have finally assigned myself a couple of sentences a day. <\/span>Each sentence is its own puzzle–with the one preceding and following not helping much. As for these two from page 6, I know what he means…<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

The basic levels of experience that motivate art are related to those of the world from which they recoil. The unsolved
\nantagonism of reality returns in artworks as problems of form.<\/i>  [Emphasis added.]<\/span><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“At Large” is bursting with ideas, dances, experiments in approaching the audience and the world–probably too much of everything, with some of the connecting threads too thin. But how nice for a change, this rigorous excess rather than the usual dour minimalism or clubby encodedness (like a party where every cluster is a closed circle–to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"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":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}