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Ed Tyler / edhead productions
Millennium Stage North
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC, USA
June 12, 2006

by George Jackson
copyright ©2006, George Jackson

Ed Tyler’s eye for coloring and configuring the stage space was in evidence! The designs of both dances he presented on this program had impact. Memorable in the first work, “Expose”, was blue — a medium-light blue. The big circle painted on the set’s backdrop was that hue and so was a component in the dancers’ patterned blouses, worn atop black pants and bare feet. Four slat blinds separated the cast of four women from the public. Although the blinds were opened slowly and deliberately at the start, they turned out not to be a serious barrier to seeing even when one and then two of them were shut again during the course of the dance — just for the heck of it, or so it seemed. I doubt that Tyler intended this hide-and-expose business as a comment on an iconic piece of Paul Taylor choreography, the partial-view “Private Domain”.

White was the color dominating the second dance, ”Ataraxia”, also a pas de quatre and for the same women – Brooke Bellot, Kelly Bond, Lillian Cho and Tzveta Kassabova. (Tyler’s name was in the cast list but he didn’t appear in what was billed as a work-in-progress.) The dancers wore white children’s smocks and played with white objects. Shape made a strong impression in “Ataraxia” with its ovoid toys (balloons and beach balls) whereas “Expose” only hinted at an archetypal form because its rectangles (the blinds and the backdrop poster) had faint outlines.

Tyler’s movement isn’t as clear cut as his designing although “Expose” does begin definitely with pacing that accelerates. The women step-turn slowly, then move at faster clips: from walking and brisk walking to almost running and all-out running. They run a circle before coming to a halt, one after another. Thereafter, the choreography meanders. There are droops, body swings, jumps and more runs — both in a forward direction and in reverse. There’s also partnering and arm gesticulation. The motion in “Expose” is that of warm-up sessions at a gym, whereas in “Ataraxia” adults seem to be demonstrating games to kids. The latter title denotes a detached state of mind, a freedom from desires that arise out of vanity and conceit. To see whether the dance attains that spiritual plane we’ll have to wait for it to be finished.

Some of Tyler’s choreography is rhythmically patterned, as called for in the classical definition of dance. However, in these two pieces he avoids stylization of movement and body placement, dealing instead with motion and dance for everyone, at least almost everyone between ages 5 and 40. He neither reaches for an ideal nor (as he did in his behavioral theater piece “Sanctuary”) revels in the grotesque. Tyler is far from alone among contemporary choreographers in being so democratic. This everyday dancing is being done everywhere today — Berlin, Bangkok and Brooklyn. It didn’t used to be boring when improvisers first started showing their limbering routines and doodles to the public. That, though, was long ago. Please, choreographers, deglobalize and bring back variety and virtuosity.

Volume 4, No. 24
June 19, 2006
copyright ©2006 George Jackson
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