doug elkins choreography, etc. at Baryshnikov Arts Center

The theater at Baryshnikov Arts Center was totally packed for the New York premiere of Mo(or)town/Redux, presented by doug elkins choreography, etc. So, while I can't tell you if you'll be able to get in, do try. You get Elkins's exhilarating Scott, Queen of Marys into the bargain--a cocktail blend of Scottish dancing, voguing, capoeira moves and more, first seen in 1994 but ever-fresh with a fine cast that includes very cool/on fire Javier Ninja. Seventy minutes all told, the two-dance program makes quite a very neat package for your weekend.

In the ingenious Mo(or)town/Redux, Elkins brings both Shakespeare's Othello and José Limon's The Moor's Pavane into the age of Motown and soul music. Kyle Marshall plays the Othello figure like a tall, dignified Black athlete; Donnell Oakley, his treasured Desdemona in high spirits and with bright energy just oozing from every pore. Alexander Dones and Cori Marquis--scheming Iago and his dupe, Emilia--make another sexy couple. Elkin's choreography references the lively use of space and the quartet and duet court dance patterns Limon skillfully employed as well as Limon's clever, ultimately treacherous business with a now-you-see-it, now-you-don't handkerchief--all of this arranged against a soundscape Black music hits of the '60s.

The carefully selected music--not the original versions of songs like "Tears of A Clown" and "Just My Imagination," of course--is effective, if borderline obvious and actually my least favorite element in this piece. The choreography rolls out so suave and delicious, the dancers so deft, that I think Elkins could tell the Othello story just as well without the overlay of well-known lyrics. Best of all, these dancers--especially, Oakley and the sensational Dones, who clearly loves dancing so much he can't seem to help making villainous Iago downright appealing--work out with such natural truth that they can draw you right into the dance. Not just great moves well done: This thing is alive, baby!
doug elkins choreography, etc. continues its BAC run tonight and Saturday at 7:30pm. For information and tickets, click here.

Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

House of Olinghouse

Absolutely no advance tickets remain for Cori Olinghouse's voix de ville, but don't hesitate to get on the waiting list! You'd be mad to miss a chance to see this show, part of PLATFORM 2011: Body Madness, at Danspace Project.

Before I go further, let's get another layer of titling out of the way: DP ED Judy Hussie-Taylor--wearing her curator's hat this time--has labeled her chosen PLATFORM sequence "Part 1--Absurdity & Wit." All of this sounds impossibly clunky to my ears, but it really doesn't matter what Hussie-Taylor or her fellow PLATFORM curators call this or anything else. They have turned New York's contemporary dance scene upside down by radically expanding the nature of work we usually envision in the sanctuary of St. Mark's.

The lush jewel box of voix de ville ("voices of the city") contains three gems. Olinghouse's opener--The Animal Suite: Experiments in Vaudeville and Shapeshifting--deserves a more relaxed title. But its actual execution is pure, lapidarian grace. It lifts the audience away from time and into a fanciful world where vaudeville, eccentric, postmodern and house dance overlap, where gender identity ebbs and flows, and where fairytale birds and bears may coexist in peaceable spirit. The five-member cast is perfect--especially exquisite Olinghouse and Neal Beasley, whose Keatonesque-Chaplinesque dancing is a tasty joy.

(I think you'll enjoy this conversation between Olinghouse and MIT professor, writer and performer Thomas DeFrantz: Click here.)

The eccentrically-costumed Kota Yamazaki dances Itsuko san--part-Butoh, part-drag-from-hell, part fever dream--as splashes and splotches of music whimsically flare up and depart. His locomotion gets him from here to there but never through a straight path or with deliberate steps, and the dance just slips away, evaporates at the end. Quite right.

Elements of Vogue--created and performed by the truly legendary Archie Burnett (Olinghouse's master teacher) and Javier Ninja of the House of Ninja--ends the evening with a real house dance bang. Ninja is comically robotic and fussy to Burnett's sexy earthiness, but they both move with astonishing conviction and power.

Try to see voix de ville at Danspace Project tonight or tomorrow at 8pm. More information here and ticketing info here.

Danspace Project
St. Mark's Church
Second Avenue and 10th Street, Manhattan