What O'Connor wrought

The only way to have fit more people into Dance Theater Workshop for last night's Tere O'Connor world premiere would have been to stack them sideways over our heads. So, if you haven't made your reservation yet, I would advise you to do it now. Wrought Iron Fog runs through Saturday (7:30pm) with an additional 10pm performance on Friday.

This piece might not have stirred and rocked me like Rammed Earth but it's a solid work of craft by O'Connor and his creative team--most notably, dancers Hilary Clark, Daniel Clifton, Erin Gerken, Heather Olson and Matthew Rogers; composer James Baker; and lighting designer Michael O'Connor. Walter Dundervill collaborated with Tere O'Connor on the beautiful set, and Gerkin and Jennifer Goggans designed costumes.

I really dug the transparency of how O'Connor set his dancers against the generous DTW space, almost always keeping them at fair distances from one another so each one's movements--even the little, witty details in the choreography--would be visible and prominent. This brings out not only the physical and stylistic differences in his fascinating corps--contrast the persistent neatness of Gerkin with the increasing rawness of Rogers, for instance--but also hints at the elusive, variable self enthroned by the body.

The empty air seemed charged as if each body was an instrument strummed, plucked, thwacked and shaken to produce Baker's dynamic music. With this magnetic spaciousness, graceful architecture and body-music as matrix, the abstract piece maintained coherence--and interest--throughout its hour, and then the audience roared its love.

Information and tickets at DTW