Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Dance roundup: Annie-B Parson’s confounding THE MOOD ROOM and exciting performances of SHELTER and BUSKER by Alvin Ailey

• By drediman
• December 7, 2021
• No Comments

I recently had a chance to catch up with and engage in a couple of dance performances. Here are my thoughts on them.

THE MOOD ROOM
Big Dance Theater at Brooklyn Academy of Music
Closed

Last week in a sold out run at BAM Fisher, Annie-B Parson and her Big Dance Theater unveiled their latest dance theater creation, an anticipated co-commission between BAM and The Kitchen entitled The Mood Room (SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED). The work – which is told through the lens of five sisters – attempts to depict the Reagan era, during which consumerism reigned at the expense of social responsibility. Set in some sort of stylized vision of an upper middle class home in Los Angeles and performed via a combination of dance and avant-garde theater to an organic score by Holly Herndon, the piece takes its inspiration from various texts, notably Guy de Cointet’s Five Sisters and Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters. Although this all sounds fascinating, the end result unfortunately confounded me, leaving me hard pressed to make any meaningful connection between what had transpired onstage and the show’s aforementioned premise. As for the choreography, I found Ms. Parson’s gestural and idiosyncratic movements as distinctive as ever. That being said, I did miss the expressive joy that marks her inspired work in David Byrne’s American Utopia (a current hit on Broadway, thanks in no small part to Ms. Parson’s choreographic contributions). Nevertheless, The Mood Room was compellingly performed by a diverse mostly-female cast, each of whom brought their own unique talents to the table. Collectively, these dancers/actors created a palpable mood – if not necessarily a cohesive theatrical experience – which I guess is true to at least the title of the work.

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER
New York City Center
In repertory through December 19

Last weekend, I also got the opportunity to attend an exciting performance by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which is currently in the midst of its annual winter run at New York City Center. On the program were Shelter, Busk, and the dependably-programmed Revelations. The first two works are bound thematically by their respective depiction of the fringes of society – namely, the homeless and street entertainers – and therefore function well as companion pieces. In Shelter (choreographed in 1988 and premiered by Ailey in 1992), choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar uses forceful, brutal movements to impart the pointed despair of the state of homelessness. The all-female cast was altogether fierce, giving performances of gripping urgency. Azure Barton’s captivatingly-danced Busk (choreographed in 2009 and first danced by the company in 2019), in comparison, is casually elegant and loose-limbed. Seemingly, the piece draws parallels between the scrappy work of buskers and the sacred calling of the twelve apostles. Indeed, I noticed a number of pseudo-Renaissance references to Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”, which Mr. Barton gorgeously integrates into the visual fabric of his noir-tinged dance. Together, these two pieces worked well together to humanize society’s fringes in deeply empathetic and dramatically satisfying ways. As is often the case, the bill concluded with the familiar classic Revelations, which continues to provide spiritual sustenance to those who seek it.