Niles Ford's showing at Dixon Place

At the time that I was assigned this review by Dance Magazine, neither the editor nor I knew that Niles Ford would be showing a work-in-progress instead of a finished work. On the night of the performance, I checked with Ford and his manager, and both gave permission to review the piece. The New York Times review (by Claudia La Rocco) ran last Wednesday. But now my DM editor has decided that the magazine has no room for reviews of works-in-progress, even on its Web site... Well, anyway, here's what I had to say about In Search of The Invisible People.

Niles Ford/Urban Dance Collective
at Dixon Place, NYC
March 17-18, 2008

Dixon Place has long been downtown’s premiere home for works-in-utero. Even so, it wasn’t clear that choreographer Niles Ford intended to present only a half-hour’s worth of snippets from a proposed evening-length work (originally initiated with colleague Nathan Trice). In Search of The Invisible People is a nostalgia-stoking tribute to the club dance scene of New York, Chicago and Detroit. Despite the unfinished nature of the piece, both Ford and his manager eagerly green-lighted reviews by the two dance critics in attendance.

Ford’s sampler opened with a color-soaked video of an enigmatic modern dance duet shot around an old house on Curaçao and an impressionistic solo with Vincent Hernandez, in a flouncey miniskirt, crouching and paddling around the floor to a recording of “La Vie en Rose.” This was followed by two unforgettable solos: vogue-ing by Archie Burnett, an incisive and commanding dancer, and a sleight-of-body performance by self-described club kid James “Cricket” Colter, who hails from Philadelphia and has the look of a slight but insouciant prizefighter. This live dancing was set against a backdrop of still and moving images of Willi Ninja, Andy Warhol, Sylvester, Keith Haring and a pumping crowd at places like the Paradise Garage and The Gallery.

A silky quintet--Stephanie Booth, Stephesha David, Jessica Parks, Cara Robino and Michelle Siegel--danced well enough but so typically-MTV that your mind could run the tape moments before their moves unfolded before your eyes. Why not challenge these young women with powerhouse solos of their own? A club/street virtuoso like Rokafella–just to name one well-known example–can get in the game with the best of the guys.

In the Q&A that followed the showing, Ford repeatedly emphasized his case that the world of hip hop rose to prominence on the backs of queer club kids who now–as “the lost generation,” “the invisible people”–get no credit for their innovations. “Life, love and acceptance. Somewhere in the ‘80s, that got lost,” the choreographer mourned.

All mourning aside, Ford and his cast are certainly talented and often fun. Let’s hope they will stitch these patches of memory into a well-shaped, meaningful chronicle of cultural history.

(c)2008, Eva Yaa Asantewaa