Absolute
Value
Ali
Kenner
Absolute Value
Joyce Soho
New York, NY
October 21-24, 2004
By
Nancy Dalva
copyright
© 2004 by Nancy Dalva
Ali
Kenner gave her first evening length concert last week in the pristine
white box that is the Joyce Soho. Her opening solo called “Cyclical”
(2003) and her new quartet called “Absolute Value” were thoughtful,
and seemingly mood-driven, though with no specific story lines. The first
transpired to the live caterwauls of Erica Glyn, a singer-guitarist whose
lyrics seemed to be illustrated by the movement. The general impression
was of female angst, which was unfortunate, given Miss Kenner’s
gift for telling gestures that could be literate, and even witty, if they
weren’t in such a worried context—for instance, the use of
a hitchhiker’s thumb, the circling of an ample behind in a pair
of white hip-huggers, and the tracing of a thumb down a vein. This last
of course isn’t witty, it’s chilling and interesting, or could
be. But the music and dance were very much of a piece. If the music struck
you as Bonnie Raitt manqué to the max, the movement wouldn’t
have made up for it.
“Absolute Value” is a dance for two couples, but the personnel
shift. Miss Kenner is joined by Toby Billowitz, Storme Sundberg (whose
program note, I cannot resist noting, says she “wants to levitate
when she grows up,” and that she is “stalked by birds”),
and Mark Thrapp—thus there are two men, two women. The women wear
ugly dresses in mauve and purple, and the men wear something bland. The
score, which I believe could be classified as electronic—at any
rate it was performed on a laptop computer—was by Morgan Packard.
His music had some mood, and some suggestiveness, and some found soundness,
lending the couplings a sort of Swedish atmosphere. As the dancers partnered
each other, and lay on the floor in repose, and re-partnered, I felt I
was watching a foreign movie without subtitles. Something was going on
for sure, but exactly what?
Ali Kenner has an impulse towards the emotional, and towards illustrating
the specifics of emotion, but not towards overt plot. (The established
choreographer she most reminds me of is Doug Varone.) It was difficult
to determine whether a great deal of technical aptitude underlay the clean,
but not sharp, movement, and it was difficult to distinguish among the
varying tempi. For although one could discern that some
steps were faster than others, the differentiation was not meaningful,
the overall effect being of a general temporal lassitude more vexing than
soothing to the viewer. The choreographer and her companions in dance
appear to have all the time in the world to resolve their relationships.
World enough, and time: what luxuries! Even if they did make life seem
long, and art seem short, you had to wish the foursome well, and hope
things would work out.
www.danceviewtimes.com
Volume 2, No. 40
October 25, 2004
Copyright
©2004 by Nancy Dalva
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Writers |
Mindy
Aloff
Dale Brauner
Mary Cargill
Christopher Correa
Clare Croft
Nancy Dalva
Rita Felciano
Marc Haegeman
George Jackson
Gia Kourlas
Sali Ann Kriegsman
Alexander Meinertz
Tehreema Mitha
Gay Morris
Ann Murphy
Paul Parish
John Percival
Susan Reiter
Jane Simpson
Alexandra Tomalonis (Editor)
Lisa Traiger
Meital Waibsnaider
Kathrine Sorley Walker
Leigh Witchel
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