Triple Goddess at WOW

If you can still get a ticket, check out the three solo-woman shows continuing their joint premiere run at the WOW Café Theater tonight and tomorrow at 8pm. MilDred (formerly, Dred), the Haitian-American performance artist who forged a credible reputation on dicking around with gender expression, elevates her talents to new levels of sophistication and meaning in Haitian GOD/DESSES. Drawing from traditional Afro-Atlantic religion and culture, she takes the physical and sartorial form of each of three spirits sacred to practitioners of voudon--Danbala, Baron Samedi and Erzulie--who, themselves, contain duality, triplicity and all kinds of powerful multitudes within. Full moon on her back, she does not lack--to slightly paraphrase one of the lines from her dynamic monologue--for she has found survival in moon-like fluidity and self-transformation.

MilDred's skills offer a potent lesson in how to put on a performance. There's no filler. No word or motion is wasted. All are employed with the exacting precision she also uses to apply the makeup of gender transformation. But those changes mainly come from deep within where a world of possibilities exist--all of them MilDred, as she tells us. Genders and personalities flush to her skin, clear to everyone's view: There stands before you, unmistakably, this one or that one. And then, whoever has arrived recedes to be replaced by someone equally vivid. Her command of voice and body, of cosmetics and costume (most designed by her colleague, dancer sokhna heathyre mabin) is confident and assertive. If you don't get to see Haitian GOD/DESSES, be sure to see MilDred somewhere doing whatever. Visit her site.

Not only did mabin design most of MilDred's costuming for Haitian GOD/DESSES, she also created her own costumes and sculpted props for snapshots from the underground forrest. (No telling why "forrest" has two r's, but it appears to be deliberate, not a typo.) Would that mabin could also sculpt her piece, itself, with as fine an eye. Unlike MilDred and the third performer, Tantra-zawadi, she works without words and relies on the surreal, ritual-like visual elements of her piece to give it variety and a sense of shifting place. Not only is snapshots quite long, it feels even longer--much longer still, on a program that started more than 20 minutes late and had two "brief intermissions" that ended up sprawling.

snapshots only seems to be approaching an end when it starts up again on one or another visual or musical tangent. Watching mabin picturesquely stretch, writhe, crawl and drift through much of this dance, especially when sleep-inducing yoga music is playing, draws attention to the work's limitations and missed opportunities. mabin moves prettily but is, perhaps, too invested in that sensual loveliness to explore what else her body might be able to express. Choreography is more than prodigious output; it's about making choices with impact.

Tantra-zawadi knows from impact. Soldier Blues--a "poetic movement" concerned with the wellbeing of our military forces and their families--makes her wicked-sharp, blues-based spoken word performance the solid core of a contained multimedia team presentation. She's sensational, rousing and right as rain. And, as with MilDred, you should see her perform whenever you get the chance. Learn more about Tantra-zawadi online.

WOW Café Theater
59-61 East 4th Street, 4th Floor
between Bowery and Second Avenue, Manhattan
Reservations: 646-342-5660