Stephen Petronio Company at the Joyce Theater

by Eva Yaa Asantewaa

As one of Stephen Petronio’s dances concluded, a woman in the audience pierced the silence with a flute-like “Oooo!” Who could have said it better? This company gives great pleasure, and one appropriate response to its full-out way with music is with a little music of one’s own.

For the current season--a sampler of new, revived and previewed works–top marks go to Michael Badger who opens Without You II (the world premiere) with a warped, rubbery, tortuous solo in which body parts sometimes seem to want to twist off or fly away, with every major muscle group responding to different musical time signatures, some lazy, some driven. A sensationally flexible performer, Badger has a body is acutely attuned to the smart way Petronio plays within a rhythm and subverts expectations just as, with assuredness and without much fanfare, he subverts our expectations around gender.

Elena Demyanenko, another of the strangely appealing odd ducks who dance so thrillingly for Petronio, partners Badger well in the latter part of Without You II, but he’d almost be better off...ahem...without her. Their entwining duet stretches on a bit and I missed the focus of Badger’s outrageous solo. Watch for Badger partnering Gino Grenek in the crisp, forceful and exhilarating male duet that opens Bud Suite (2006), set to Rufus Wainwright’s “Oh What A World.”

Petronio also offers a preview of This Is the Story of a Girl in a World, a suite slated to premiere in 2008, set to music by Antony. It features Grenek, Shila Tirabassi and Amanda Wells in "Bird Gurhl" and an engaging solo, "For Today I am a Boy," danced by the spritely, close-cropped Davalois Fearon wearing an ingenious costume that makes her appear to be shedding a man’s jacket like a snake’s skin and revealing the woman within.

"The Ship Song" (a quartet from Underland, created for Sydney Dance Company in 1997) and ReBourne (a pair of simultaneous, overlapping dances set to Beastie Boys songs) round out the company’s season, which concludes on Sunday. For details and tickets, see www.joyce.org.

(c)2007 Eva Yaa Asantewaa