THE HANGOVER REPORT – Holy Body Tatto’s MONUMENTAL assaults the senses (and society) at BAM

The Holy Body Tattoo performs "monumental"

The Holy Body Tattoo performs “monumental”

Last night at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (as part of the Next Wave Festival), I attended a performance of monumental, courtesy of Canadian dance company The Holy Body Tattoo. The hybrid dance/physical theater piece is an expression of life in our urban, corporate-driven world. Much like two other Next Wave offerings I’ve caught thus far – Verdensteatret’s Bridge Over Mud and Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe’s Phaedra(s) – monumental loosely depicts an emotional state and societal construct that’s unsustainable and destined to crash and burn.

This is suggested by the increasingly panicked choreography by Dana Gingras and Noam Gagnon and the assaultive, almost too-overpowering live music provided Godspeed You! Black Emperor (note that I was provided with ear plugs before the show). The evening begins with nine dancers isolated atop their own pedestals, highlighting our isolation in the modern age and a sense of human beings as cogs in a machine. As the hour-long piece unfolds, the dancers begin to show signs of individuality and the need to defy the rigid choreographic instructions they’ve been given, eventually resulting in a frenzied, apocalyptic orgy. All this is played against a series of inquiring text from artist Jenny Holzer and bleak film projections by William Morrison. monumental plays its second and final New York performance tonight.

RECOMMENDED

 

MONUMENTAL
Dance
The Holy Body Tattoo at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
1 hour (without an intermission)
Through September 17

Categories: Dance

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