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Flash Review 2, 3-6:
Taking the Elevator to Florida
Vasquez's Promising Project
By Paul Ben-Itzak
Copyright 2001 The Dance Insider
From a dance perspective,
only two New York choreographers (to my mind, anyway) have succeeded
in producing theater on a level with their high-caliber dance: Jane
Comfort, who knows how to find talented literary collaborators,
and Mark Dendy, who has the playwrighting chops himself. From a
theater perspective -- at least in my limited exposure -- only one
theater company has truly integrated dance so that it is not only
on a level with the script, but informs it and indeed is made to
look essential to an understanding of the words: Elevator Repair
Service. So when I heard that an ERS alum, Tory Vasquez, was putting
on a new show, "The Florida Project," as an ERS junkie who spent
many of the happiest days of my childhood in Florida, I had no choice
but to hie myself to P.S. 122 last weekend to check out the Gator
-- and I do mean Gator -- action.
Ironically, dance, or
at least the portion performed outside of the water, is the weakest
element in "The Florida Project." Choreographer Kari H. appears
to be trying to replicate the manner in which choreography is used
to express inner and outer psychodrama by ERS: The movement, often
in group formation, features the tics and gestures ERS usually amplifies
to reveal the turmoil of its personae and the underlying stream-of-consciousness
of its found dialogue. But Kari H. has not gone the extra step to
fashion them into a choreographic language. She may still get there
-- the evening had the feel of a work-in-progress, by which description
I don't mean to diminish its prodigy but, if anything, to say I
want more!
The setting is Weekie
Waggie (sp.??) World, where hostess Beth (Kristen Kosmas) and divers
Karen (Vasquez) and Virginia (Juliana Francis) put on a sort of
underwater mermaid ballet show. Their World has also become the
home to a Reptile world, presided over by three brothers (the hunkie
Robert, played by Chris Sullivan; the psychopathic Tom, played by
Richard Maxwell; and the simpering Ross Allen Jr. (Aaron Landsman),
who gets to play the alligator. Put the mermaids together with the
raging testosterone and Peyton Place ensues!
If you've ever been to
Sea World in Florida or anywhere else, you know the drill: A host
or hostess welcomes us to the show/feeding time, and others perform.
The show presented by Beth and the mermaids has the ring of Florida
authenticity. My Floridian companion confirmed there really is a
Weekie Waggie World, and the presentations are not much different
than what we saw in the East Village. Me, I only saw the real "They
call him" Flipper perform, and the use of the tank in "The Florida
Project" definitely evoked that world. In a pool of water that can't
be more than five feet wide by three or four feet tall, Vasquez,
Meyer, and the performers manage to communicate the kitschy yet
lyrical beauty of these mermaid shows...plus, later, the drama of
an underwater mano-a-gator fight.
What am I saying? At
the risk of seeming patronizing, that this is a promising beginning
-- emphasis on the "promising," not the beginning! I want to see
more. It seems to me that in last year's Avant-Garde-A-Rama, Vasquez
explored a different side of Florida that had more to do with her
Cuban-American roots. That segment seemed more fleshed out, and
more textured, offering high comedy and more than a hint of psycho-drama,
with a more pointed Latin Flava. I'd like to see similar development
here, and more of an evident raison d'etre for the choreography.
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