Helen Simoneau Danse

What I saw last night. Helen Simoneau Danse at the Joyce Soho. The first piece is a duet between two women. They play freeze tag and don’t touch until the end. The second piece is for five where they throw each other around like some rough housing on the playground. The next piece is a solo where a woman chases of a flock of filmed birds and eventually stalks off herself. The final piece six people become a flock of birds and eventually start rough housing like in the second piece until they all sneak away.

Elements: film
Title: “Flight Distance III: Chain Suite” “Flight Distance I” “Flight IV: Flock” “Flight Distance II”
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Alexandra Beller

What I saw last night. Alexandra Beller at the Joyce Soho. A group of men and women interact in front of and inside of a rolling room. Film is sometimes projected on varying surfaces displaying couples in apparent disputes. This is something like the NY Times Metropolitan Diary or The New Yorker’s short stories done as dance. I have seen this kind of thing before and likely will again. Good music by a guy from Band of Susans.

Elements: umbrella, rolling room structure, live music, video, talking
Title: “other stories”
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Decadancetheatre

What I saw last night. Decadancetheatre at the Joyce Soho. Six girls that do hip-hop dance. The first piece is a duet done to a mashup of some hip-hop beats and Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons”. It is a clever idea but I am not sure it is there in practice yet. The second piece is a nice gimmick. A solo in which the lights go out and her clothes light up to create squiggly lines in the dark. Surprisingly more squiggly lines appear as other dancers have snuck on stage. The final piece is meant to be in 3D (I was issued glasses) but it did not seem to work and made thing mostly blurry.

Elements: live DJ, 3D, light up clothing
Title: “4” “City Breathing:2012 Remix” “When the Sky Breaks 3D”
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Molly Shanahan

What I saw last night. Molly Shanahan at the Joyce Soho. One piece but I have no idea what it was about. Two women and a man sort of shimmy their way toward the front of the space. Mostly keeping their arms close they move about joined by another woman to classical and hip hop music often being played at the same time. Also they include the famous Alec Baldwin speech from Glengarry Glen Ross and Jack Nicholson telling Tom Cruise how it is in his rant while on the stand in A Few Good Men. Maybe they had to rehearse at someones house who refused to turn down the TV or music so that became their soundtrack. Anyway I would not mind watching these movies again.

Elements: film dialog, glengarry glen ross, a few good men, talking
Title: “Sharks Before Drowning”
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Belinda McGuire

What I saw last night. Belinda McGuire at the Joyce Soho. A solo. The first piece is arduous and performed in part in the shadows. It looked diificult. The next piece had a lot of bad face making and playing with rope. Faking hanging and pulling it out of her mouth etc. The last piece is performed to Joni Mitchell’s “All I Really Want”. Basically she mimics the lyrics.

Elements: rope, foot stool, Joni Mitchell
Title: “The Eight Propositions” “Anthem for the Living” “Blue Solo, Joni”
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Gesel Mason

What I saw last night. Gesel Mason at Joyce Soho. At least once a week nudity is featured in a show so it is surprising they advertise the fact on the door.  Lots of debating about whether it is shameful to sleep around. More group therapy than show. I hope someone came out feeling empowered but I just came out enervated.

Elements: film, talking, singing, nudity, table, chairs, cash, questionnaires, interacting with audience
Title: “Women, Sex & Desire: Sometimes You Feel Like a Ho, Sometimes You Don’t”
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Mai-Thu Perrett with Laurence Yadi

What I saw last night. Mai-Thu Perrett with Laurence Yadi at the Joyce Soho. In this work five women and one man prance about pretending to be cats a mouse and a dog etc. They throw foam bricks and meow while a woman in a hat walks around singing troubadour style words hard to understand. This was supposed to be about the old comic strip Krazy Kat. They could have said it was about Fritz the cat or Felix the cat. I am not sure I would have been able to tell any difference. A convincing meow in any case.

Elements: cat, dog & mouse costumes, singing, meowing
Title: “Love Letters in Ancient Brick”
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Sally Gross and Company

What I saw last night. Sally Gross and Company at the Joyce Soho. I started by walking up Stone Street past the Ulysses pub where they celebrate Bloomsday by holding an all day Reading from Ulysses. I pressed onward but was still early so killed time in the Apple store. There was a photographer giving a slide show of his concert photos particularly a lot of Woodstock, Dylan and the Stones. Finally the show.

Three women in headscarves move very slowly and deliberately around a big chair. They later change from sweats to skirts and do something similar on a bench. The last piece the choreographer comes out to perform a solo with sheets of paper on the ground to David Byrne/Brian Eno music. The whole thing had a kind of melancholy.
Elements: chair, bench, paper, live saxophone playing bleating Albert Ayler type riffs to less effect
Title: “Three” “Another Three” “Threefold” “Two” “One”
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Luis Lara Malvacias / 3rd Class Citizen

What I saw last night. Luis Lara Malvacias / 3^rd Class Citizen at the Joyce Soho. Four people stomp about in the darkness wearing rubber boots, puffy coats and ski masks with no eye or mouth holes. After over an hour of this a woman comes out (presumably Amanda) she does a little dance and then requests we follow her down the aisle. She shakes us at the N train going downtown. I went back upstairs to get my own train. I could have done without the detour.

Elements: darkness, film, talking, flashlights. ski masks, puffy coats, chair, plastic guns & knives etc.
Title: “Amanda & The Black Void of Space”
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Ledoh & Salt Farm ButohnVérité

What I saw last night. Ledoh/Salt Farm ButohnVérité at the Joyce Soho.  A supposed Butoh influenced performance about the post 9/11 world and the unfair treatment of different races. Righteous material but certainly well trod terrain. Done as a red white and blue triptych this is no Krzysztof Kieslowski. Instead chairs are thrown about to simulate interrogations and an all white flag is presented before a woman is strangled with red gauze. For better efforts on this subject matter check my entry on the Irish Modern Dance Theatre.

Elements: film, Sinatra, chairs
Title: “COLORMEAMERICA”
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