Legendary Darrell Jones tears it up at Danspace Project

Curator Ishmael Houston-Jones's 2012 PARALLELS platform for Danspace Project might seem distant in time but, in actuality, it's still top of mind for a lot of people who love contemporary dance in New York. We're still talking about it, referencing it. Simply put, PARALLELS was one of the most mind-freeing and stimulating dance series we'd ever witnessed. As long as it ran, we could never get enough. A tasty morsel from Darrell Jones's club dancing fantasia, HOO-HA (for your eyes only), was a big part of that success, and this weekend--lucky us--we get the whole thing.

Once again, there's Jones with fellow dancers Damon Green and J'Sun Howard--a trio emerging from semi-darkness into protected space. The three men, all Black, are dressed alike in black garments with silver sneakers and chunky silver bangles. Their stocking caps, looped around their chins like helmets, have long, horsetail switches sewn into them which the men often flip, twirl and otherwise worry. One's mind explodes with the choreography's multiple, simultaneous hints of ninjas clashing, sleek show horses prancing, club kids voguing and ritualists in high, esoteric ceremony--energetic, determined to a fare-thee-well, amid the occasional, unmistakable sound of a lashing whip. Martial and stylish all at once, the men enact their secret rite across a floor strewn with rose petals and, like those petals, they fall, drift, litter the space with the kind of beauty that stays fresh for a time. And sometimes they touch, giggle, leap into waiting arms. And sometimes they werrrrk into ecstasy.

With Justin Mitchell (DJ Swaguerilla), sound designer/DJ/mixing and dramaturgy by Talvin Wilks

HOO-HA (for your eyes only), which runs just under an hour, continues at 8pm tonight and Saturday. For ticket information, click here.

Danspace Project
St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery
131 East 10th Street (at Second Avenue), Manhattan
(map/directions)