Artist:
Parson’s Dance Company
Genera: Theater
Background:
Having delighted audiences around the globe
with their high-energy works packed with
wit, exuberance and a sense of pure entertainment,
The Parsons Dance Company is one of the
hottest tickets in contemporary American
dance.
The season's newest work, Pass the Oil,
Please, also operates in a single gear.
Two real-live masseuses poke and knead and
pull at two rag doll-limp dancers. It's
one of those duet-duels executed on the
beat to what the program terms "Bachelor
Pad Music" ("I'm in the Mood for
Love" and the like). There are many
cheap gags--loud neck-cracking sounds, for
instance, and I'll 1et you imagine the rest.
A little sophomoric maybe, but, hey, people
laughed.
Parsons has translated many of his personal
gifts directly to his dancers, if not his
dances. They are an able, pleasing bunch,
with Patricia Kenny a particular standout.
They tear after the choreography with hungry
vigor, giving it everything they've got.
But that's just not enough.
Battle’s Takademe made you sit up
and take notice. To music by Sheila Chandra,
Mia McSwain launches one of the cross-cultural
numbers that fascinate this choreographer
(as in Juba, the recent Ailey commission).
The foot work is vigorous and complex, reflective
of, but not subservient to Indian classical
dance. The other Parsons commission, Skarpetowska’s
Stand Back, was less memorable in its reiterated
unisons and a Nandor Weisz score that batters
you into submission.
The ever-popular Parsons Dance Company teams
up with the sexy Ahn Trio for a classy and
stylish evening. The Juilliard-trained sister
act hails from South Korea and provides
an exquisite soundtrack for the inventive
and joyful dances of David Parsons.
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