Faye Driscoll “Your Me”

What I saw last night. Faye Driscoll at the Kitchen. A duet. A man and woman stand on a pedestal wearing loads of clothing and holding as much random stuff as possible. For 90 minutes they escalate the amount of props they interact with creating s bigger mess as feathers, powder and paint fly about. There is yelling and crying and riding on each others backs while oranges and such are stuffed down their pants. A long messy night.

Elements: clothes, oranges, grapes, furs, knife, talcum powder, red dye, yellow paint, hair brush, glasses, feathered boas, etc.
Title: “Your Me”
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Kyle Abraham

What I saw last night. Kyle Abraham at the Kitchen. A group of men and women wearing  glittery adidas track suits illustrate the difficulties of coming out in the boastful male centric hip hop world. Essentially the choreographer’s story I believe. He was very good but everyone else was negligible particularly the women who are often pushed to the margins in hip hop.Nice piece danced to the music of Bill Evans however and a funny youtube clip of a woman trying to teach hip hop.

Elements: adidas track suits, film, raps, talking, crying
Title: “Live! The Realest MC”
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Maria Hassabi “Show”

What I saw last night. Maria Hassabi at the Kitchen. In this work two women move about in close unison within the milling or seated on the floor audience. A soundtrack of the ambient noise of a party or crowd talking is shifted between speakers in the corners of the space. There were also a lot of lights to keep the space very bright. The bright light brought out the camera phones so I felt justified in taking a few shots for my couple readers. They also had a couple of doppelgängers performing in the street after the show.

Elements: performing in the audience, no seats
Title: “Show”
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Faustin Linyekula

What I saw last night. Faustin Linyekula at the Kitchen. A choreographer from the Congo, he along with two other men danced to the music provide by a live band. This was more of a concert than a dance in my view. For a long portion at the beginning the dancers sort of just shook while the band played and sang. Frankly I would have preferred a straight up concert here because the times dance was featured the music often took a backseat.

Elements: live music, text French & English, singing
Title: “More more more … future”

Dean Moss

What I saw last night. Dean Moss at the kitchen. A sculpture that appears to be an exploded egg or maybe a meteorite dominates the stage where some of the audience had been seated and pre-selected to participate. There are many extreme facial expressions and interaction with the audience member as if the performers are newly landed aliens trying to learn.

Elements: hanging sculpture, talking, bell, audience participation, nudity
Title: “Nameless Forest” set by Sungmyung Chun
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Steven Reker

What I saw last night. Steven Reker at the Kitchen. This was more of a concert than a dance performance. A group of men and women are seated on the floor to either side of the stage playing music as if at a picnic. (no legs on the keyboards etc. only the drummer had a stool) There was some dancing and a sort of battle with swinging microphones. Still the main point was the music which was actually pretty good.

Elements: live music, singing, overhead projector
Title: “People Get Ready”
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Trajal Harrell “(M)IMOSA”

What I saw the night before last. Trajal Harrell at The Kitchen. A frigid night. Much like his show that I saw at the New Museum the performers are in the audience greeting people and the seats are littered with items they may wear during the performance. Two men and two women run through various costume changes while proclaiming themselves to be the real Mimosa. This sounds dull in description (as most of my notes must seem in stark print) but this show was successful. There was also a spot on imitation of Prince doing “Darling Nikki: and a version of Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” I thought she could have done more to clear the virtual fog with her arms but I have probably watched the Kate Bush video to many times. Seek it out.

Elements: apparel, chairs, nudity, singing, costume changes
Title: “(M)IMOSA aka Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church (M)”
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Sarah Michelson “Devotion”

What I saw last night. Sarah Michelson at the Kitchen. Again.I don’t repeat many shows but this one benefits from multiple viewings. Sadly that was the last performance in New York.

Elements: paintings, sneakers, indirect lights, narration
Title: “Devotion”
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Sarah Michelson “Devotion”

What I saw last night. Sarah Michelson at the Kitchen. It was a full house. Go.

Elements: paintings, sneakers, indirect lights, narration
Title: “Devotion”
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Yasmeen Godder

What I saw last night. Yasmeen Godder at The Kitchen. Three women and two men have a food fight, imitated sex acts, wag their tongues and fling about more green slime than a nickelodeon television show. This is all done to a grinding musical score that vibrates the seats. Apparently the show was about information overload. Seemed merely overloaded to me.

Elements: green slime, red jello, oranges, plastic, scissors, pasta etc
Title: “Singular Sensation”
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