Dance Showcase w/ Anomal Dancers
Feb. 1st, 2003 04:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeLast night I went to a showcase at the Trisha Brown Dance Studio, presented for the benefit of a guy that Susan and I met last Saturday at a party. Guy's name is Stephan--he's an acrobat/dancer, and he's going off to Las Vegas for a couple of years to develop and perform in a new Cirque du Soleil show. Anyway, I showed up at 8:30 and tried to squeeze into the room where the showcase was happening. Most of the acts were excellent--I was truly surprised at how good the show was. There was a bellydancer who was phenomenal, a couple of musclemen/acrobats who elicited gasps from the audience, a sword-swallower, a swing-dancer duo (who needed to smile more but they were still great). There was also an 11-year-old girl who had a Broadway resume--she was cute but I didn't like her singing style (I usually don't with most Broadway kids--it's such a nasal, harsh sound with forced vibrato).
There was a couple of acts that I thought didn't live up to the others. One was the final act--Stephan and his partner were supposed to be the final act but I guess this guy got there late or something. Anyway he just had to sing for Stephan. I didn't like his style either--he was one of those singers where it's all about him--bending over, eating the mike, closing the eyes, no communion with the audience. Ick. Just--no. Stop showboating, just sing the damn song. Then when his song was over, he had another song to sing. Oh man, whatever. It's bad enough you had to be the final act instead of Stephan but if you just have to sing, keep it to one song. Good Lord.
Anyway, the other act I didn't like was this guy who called himself "Father Tigger" (?), and strode out to this pumping song wearing some sort of modified priest's jacket and collar. He performed this--dance? performance piece? whatever--wherein he pulled out things like a rosary, a wooden cross necklace, etc., and fondled them, mouthed them, scourged himself and them threw them aside. It was nauseating, not because it made fun of the RC church, but because it was childish. The whole tone was so self-congratulatorily naughty--ooh, look at me! I'm fondling crosses and rosaries! I'm badd!! I'm daring!!
And it's not as though it were original or bold--Madonna's worked that shtick to death. I have no problem whatsoever with intelligent, cogent criticism or satire of the Church, be it RC or any other denomination. Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You is one of my favorite plays, because it balances truly hilarious satire with honest outrage and bewilderment. But say something intelligent--say something other than Church Bad. The whole act was so artistically lazy--dress up like a priest, fondle yourself, get a few cheap laughs. Luckily I wasn't the only one put off by it--as I was leaving I heard the guy talking to someone who said he'd seen quite a few raised eyebrows in the audience, and the guy responded "That doesn't faze me a bit." I'm sure it doesn't because after all, you're a bold new voice! You're challenging long-held notions of the infallibility of the Church, you're shaking us out of our religious comfort zone, you're saying what's never been said before! Wow--the Church isn't always right! Who knew? Lead us, o Father Tigger!! Be our voice!
Vomit.
There was a couple of acts that I thought didn't live up to the others. One was the final act--Stephan and his partner were supposed to be the final act but I guess this guy got there late or something. Anyway he just had to sing for Stephan. I didn't like his style either--he was one of those singers where it's all about him--bending over, eating the mike, closing the eyes, no communion with the audience. Ick. Just--no. Stop showboating, just sing the damn song. Then when his song was over, he had another song to sing. Oh man, whatever. It's bad enough you had to be the final act instead of Stephan but if you just have to sing, keep it to one song. Good Lord.
Anyway, the other act I didn't like was this guy who called himself "Father Tigger" (?), and strode out to this pumping song wearing some sort of modified priest's jacket and collar. He performed this--dance? performance piece? whatever--wherein he pulled out things like a rosary, a wooden cross necklace, etc., and fondled them, mouthed them, scourged himself and them threw them aside. It was nauseating, not because it made fun of the RC church, but because it was childish. The whole tone was so self-congratulatorily naughty--ooh, look at me! I'm fondling crosses and rosaries! I'm badd!! I'm daring!!
And it's not as though it were original or bold--Madonna's worked that shtick to death. I have no problem whatsoever with intelligent, cogent criticism or satire of the Church, be it RC or any other denomination. Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You is one of my favorite plays, because it balances truly hilarious satire with honest outrage and bewilderment. But say something intelligent--say something other than Church Bad. The whole act was so artistically lazy--dress up like a priest, fondle yourself, get a few cheap laughs. Luckily I wasn't the only one put off by it--as I was leaving I heard the guy talking to someone who said he'd seen quite a few raised eyebrows in the audience, and the guy responded "That doesn't faze me a bit." I'm sure it doesn't because after all, you're a bold new voice! You're challenging long-held notions of the infallibility of the Church, you're shaking us out of our religious comfort zone, you're saying what's never been said before! Wow--the Church isn't always right! Who knew? Lead us, o Father Tigger!! Be our voice!
Vomit.
