Into "Thin Air"

Donna Uchizono's Thin Air--running at Dance Theater Workshop through Saturday--is only the latest work of a genius, one never content to repeat others' solutions, one who regularly sails out to visit the dragons. For this artist and her collaborating dancers, the body is a minimalist canvas lashed by contradictory lush details--like the arms and supple hands snaking out from dancers serenely and securely perched atop ladders, or the feet dancing out amusingly fast, frenetic patterns as if the dancers were figures in a speeded-up film with a few frames missing here and there.

And these dancers! Julie Alexander! Hristoula Harakas! Antonio Ramos! They are picked out of various pockets of soft darkness and lit like the jewels, the divinities, they are. Credit Jane Shaw for the textured sophistication of this lighting design. Fred Frith (music), Michael Casselli (video) and James Lo and Myles Boisen (sound engineering) complete the collaborative team for one of this young season's most affecting and important achievements.

Tickets will probably be hard to come by. See DTW's site for more details.