Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – In the compellingly eccentric HOW TO BE A DANCER IN 72,000 EASY LESSONS, Michael Keegan-Dolan meditates on a life in dance

• By drediman
• November 3, 2023
• No Comments

Last night, I attended Teac Damsa and Gate Theatre’s production of Michael Keegan-Dolan’s compellingly eccentric How to Be a Dancer in 72,000 Easy Lessons, which is currently playing for a limited run at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn (the final performance is this Sunday”. Self described as a “A Performance Ritual in Four Parts for Two Performers”, the work is in essence Keegan-Dolan’s theatrical memoir (more of a meditation?) of a life in dance from a multitude of prismatic perspectives – as a source of childhood ridicule, as a dancer, as a choreographer, as identity, as philosophy.

Although its Keegan-Dolan’s life that’s being portrayed, the storytelling is shared between Keegan-Dolan and terrifically game fellow dancer Rachel Poirier. They’re a genuinely intriguing and complimentary pairing – he’s a steady and reliable stage presence, she provides ample color and an exciting element of unpredictability to the performance – and their intuitive rapport with each other is a marvel to behold. Together, they depict, resourcefully and with incessant invention, Keegan-Dolan’s turbulent coming-of-age experience in Ireland during the 1980s, his eye-opening training in London, his doubts as a budding dancer, and finally his evolution into a well-respected choreographer in the European dance world.

Despite being billed as a dance theater piece, the deceptively stripped down production – playfully and ritualistically directed by Poirier and and Adam Silverman – isn’t quite conventionally so. To be sure, the physicality and precision displayed throughout by Keenan-Dolan and Poirier – it’s clear that both performers are trained dancers – is both rigorous and elegant. However, it’s the way they use movement (along with a good number of props) to evoke intangible emotion, forward momentum, and a sense of ephemerality – all attributes typically bestowed upon dance – within the context of Keenan-Dolan’s life’s story that effectively satisfies its billing.

Even more fascinating is how the performers themselves seem to be suspect of the notion of dance. Indeed, in perhaps the only fully realized stretch of choreography in the show, Poirier eagerly moves to the relentless beat of Ravel’s Bolero, but ultimately to satiric effect. Shortly following her gratuitous display, Keegan-Dolan ends the show simply by sitting still with a look of contemplative contentment as the swelling concluding chords of Stravinsky’s Firebird wash over him. Dance, it would seem, is best characterized as an ideal – worthy of pursuit yet always just out of grasp.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

HOW TO BE A DANCER IN 72,000 EASY LESSONS
Off-Broadway, Play
St. Ann’s Warehouse
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through November 5