What I saw last night. Keigwin + Company at the Central Park SummerStage. Can’t seem to catch a break during the heat wave. First a hot studio and now under the lights in Central Park. At least beer was available. Dance at SummerStage is always negligible.
The opening act is out in broad daylight and as a result looks washed out and incidental if noticeable at all. That fate fell to a group called Mid-Atlantic dance and Jamel Gaines’ Creative Outlet Dance Theater of Brooklyn. The first group was sweet in a young people dance recital sort of way. The latter was painfully earnest first dancing to Barack Obama’s acceptance speech. They did some other noodling before concluding with a mash up of rain songs “I Can’t Stand the Rain” and the Eurythmics “Here Comes The Rain Again” all to pay tribute to survivors of Hurricane Katrina. It was as if WBAI had their own dance company.
Finally Keigwin + Company performed a bunch of stuff I had seen before. 
First piece is like a video game done to M.I.A. and Steven Reich. Second is a bunch of duets done to love songs by Roy Orbison, Aretha Franklin, and Nina Simone. 
Finally a community piece where 50 or more people did a bunch of vamping with bicycles, balloons and umbrellas to Ravel’s Bolero. I would have been fine with just watching Bo Derek run on the beach. Already hot enough I guess.
Elements: heat, singing, spoken word, bicycles, umbrellas, balloons, skateboards, dog, children, rollerblades
Titles: “Prize” “4forfour” “Forces” all by Jamel Gaines’ Creative Outlet Dance Theater of Brooklyn “Megalopolis” “Love Songs” “Bolero NYC” by Keigwin + Company
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