The persistence of O'Con

Tara O'Con presented the brief and intriguingly eerie Walk It Once this past weekend at The Chocolate Factory. In this little slice of surrealism, Jodi Bender, Carly Pansulla and O'Con slow-w-w-w-ly crept across the floor, contorted in a way that hid their faces while revealing the curvature of their spines. They resembled misshapen sci-fi critters and Dali's melted timepieces fashioned in flesh, radiant under Holly Ko's lighting. I'm not convinced that Jason Sebastian's accompanying music, as in a lot of today's dances, needed to be so lulling. (Is it all only about not clashing or competing with the movement?) And some tentative video play across a dancer's back promised an important turn in the piece but never delivered. But my sense of O'Con is of a young talent quickly developing confidence in her physical and visual ideas and assertive vision. Not knowing what the title means--where's the walking, after all?--only adds to mysterious effect.