Movable Beast Dance Festival
Curtis was virtually shouted down after this remark, but it seems to me that he had the most cogent point. I went to both nights of the festival’s concert performances and saw many of the performers at the summer solstice celebration at the MCA. And of the 14 concert performances I saw, the majority were failures: typically the choreographer followed an aesthetic principle right over a cliff. Strong-minded and strong-willed, most of these artists are neither savvy performers nor deep thinkers.
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The most flamboyant example of taking an aesthetic principle over a cliff was Pedro Alejandro’s solo Gaze. When the lights come up behind him, we see a short, satyrlike, muscular man in white trousers and a cap with devil’s horns. Disco music begins, and he starts to vogue. When he turns around, we see that the seat of his trousers has been replaced with clear plastic panels. He dances facing away from us a long time, his bare buttocks exposed. Eventually it becomes obvious that he’s doing a nudie club routine, and in the aftershow discussion, he explains that he “wanted to reference burlesque dance.” But Gaze is such an extensive reference that it becomes indistinguishable from burlesque itself. What would cause someone to make that aesthetic choice? Alejandro explained that he wanted to fly the flag of his sexuality, to be flamingly gay. But for the life of me, I can’t figure out why knowing that Alejandro is gay is of any use to me. His aesthetic choices serve his pleasure only; they’re selfish and egotistical. Alejandro is a classic example of a self-indulgent performance artist.
The festival’s bright spots were two dances with strong movement by out-of-town choreographers, a solid gay-oriented performance, and two great pieces by old pros.
Eisen has been doing solo improvisations for decades now. Sometimes he seems to run out of ideas, and sometimes he’s imagination incarnate. This was one of the latter times. Eisen’s dancing continually explores the edge of what constitutes dance; he comes back from that edge with completely fresh movement. His dancing was also remarkably poignant; the new movement was always attached to a feeling, which flowed in a continual stream through him.
