voix de ville at Danspace
February 4, 2011
Some underground dance forms fomented in 1970s churches. Young choreographer Cori Olinghouse's "voix de ville" offers a vision of it Febuary 3-5 in St. Marks Church. It is the first in Judy Hussie-Taylor’s newest Danspace platform “Body Madness” and it features club world heavies from the House of Ninja.
The performance
of club culture ultimately established the evening ...
The opening night began with Cori Olinghouse’s choreography The Animal Suite: Experiments in Vaudeville and Shapeshifting. It did look experimental and absurd— like a unique sensibility. It begins with barefoot takes on depression-era dances. The perfectly unison tandem dancers reel around confusedly when the period music in Jake Meginsky’s score changes, as in musical chairs. The dance, which nicely balances firm footing and ballon, loses its neatness when their feet begin to move in contemporary club styles. Later, the set elements, some bare tree limbs on stands, make sense with forest sounds in the score. Like a dream sequence, one after another they turn into animals. Three have put on bear costumes and hibernate, so we look at movement elsewhere on the floor. Mina Nishimura cocks her head. Her eyes dart. Her performance is aided by a bright colored bird hood. Featherweight Eva Schmidt waves swan arms in an imaginatively constructed white swan leotard that is almost but not quite a tutu. Their animalistic gestures exude quiet magic. Elegance aside, we are watching them try on clothes and styles. Trisha Brown dancer Neal Beasley captivates in paw mitts or suspenders. Kai Kleinbard and Olinghouse (formerly with Brown) ably complete the cast. 
Image: Eva Schmidt (l) and Cori Olinghouse (r) in The Animal Suite. Photo by Bill Herbert, BH Photos
The mix is a history lesson about how various forms are rooted and connected— or at least the styles that inform Olinghouse’s work, including clowning, vogue, and butoh. The shapeshifting experiments in The Animal Suite owe much to Andy Jordan's costumes.
After intermission, Kota Yamazaki is a font of “flow” — fluid limbs and torso, grounded feet. For his hypnotic solo, he wows us in a red coat over vermillion petticoats, and a pink wig. His stage eyes are heavily lined and shadowed, with giant fringy lashes. His butohesque Itsuko san is to music by King Crimson, the Cocteau Twins, and the Stuttgart Piano Trio. Standing planted in place, he creeps with articulated toes, while his torso undulates. His knees are bowed and he is always pivoting, or otherwise moving fluidly. Yamazaki then hunches and walks as if he is aging on-the-spot. His casual exit breaks the spell.
The house was full of admirers for the evening’s very special attraction, Archie Burnett and Javier Ninja. Their performance of club culture is what ultimately established the evening as a theatrical success. The pair play with the whole of the church floor, creating levels of denouement by dancing at the far end in front of the alter, in the center, or very near to the audience. (We are seated at the back end, near the drafty church doors). All the dances in "voix de ville" employ this simple, effective stagecraft.
historical...
Burnett and Ninja dance the highly choreographed and polished Elements of Vogue to house music. “Din Da Da” by George Kranz and “Love Is A Message” by Masters at Work. Ninja is slightly built but commanding in sleek black pants and top, black combat boots, and plenty of metal and silver colored “flavors,” including a furry animal tail hooked on to the side of his pants. He begins on a stool after Burnett’s introduction. (The large, muscular veteran club dancer stands on the alter steps in angular profile. He wears denim and sunglasses). Ninja signals with his arms in exacting, shifting, elongated lines. After this seated dance, he walks, poses, and preens. Burnett has stripped to a camouflage tank top and jeans. He comes forward and faces us, proped on one elbow, in a shoulder stand. With b-boy power and the finesse that comes with maturity, he throws his legs up to about 2:00, forming a diamond shaped hole in between them. You can view the far-upstage alter through this opening, if you are seated in a central position. While holding this pose, or one like it, he polishes his long, patent leather square-toed shoe with some spit. He segues into a center stage duet with Ninja. Burnett holds his palm in front of Ninja’s face like a hand mirror as Ninja preens. Time stands still as they groom themselves and each other with quick, flicking fingers. It is history in the making, and transformative performance. The crowd wildly cheers as Burnett walks around the upstairs balcony, taking note.