BREAKING NEWS, JAN 16, 2011: “Rooster” garners first prize in the Los Angeles “A.W.A.R.D.” show for Barak Marshall and BODYTRAFFIC. Read more in the Los Angeles Times Culture Monster blog.
Meanwhile, here’s a prior review from December…
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“Black Swan” got you down?
Then check out Barak Marshall’s “ROOSTER” — a bird of a different feather. Excerpts of the full-evening work will again be laying eggs at REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles tonight, the final performance of the CalArts Winter Concert.
The Cal Arts dancers rip the wings off this richly creative dance-drama based on an I.L. Peretz shtetl tale. With great gusto they drill through Marshall’s signature beat-by-beat, nervous-tic dance-shtick. One tableau, a killer group dance for guys only, the Cal Arts men nail to the ground.
Adding inter-generational dimension and, frankly, blessing the proceedings with her presence, Margalit Oved, Marshall’s diminutive mother and a veteran powerhouse performer, joins the cast.
Highly recommended. Bravo, Barak! Everyone in the community is excited to see “MONGER” presented at UCLA this coming April.
The winter concert includes the restaging of Trisha Brown’s post-modern classic, “Set and Reset/Reset,” and other works. A very nice full bill.
Cal Arts 2010 Winter Dance Concert | REDCAT performance space @ Disney Hall | Saturday 8:30 pm
photo: Avi Avin, Dance in Israel
Thanks for your honesty, DL, and maybe someone else’ll chime in. Your comment about the deadpan performance quality and the lack of a dramatic arc seem to refer directly to the origins of postmodern dance. The other choreographers on the program are all younger than TB and have taken what they like in postmodernism and added what they like in traditional theatrical compositional structure. Yes, it did make for an interesting production, especially with the generational distance. Also, I might add, I think the original Set & Re-set performers (not surprisingly) gave the work a lot more invested non-animation that young dancers learning the piece as archival rep. Those guys flying onstage from the wings took my breath away in ’83.
Keith, I welcome the dialogue on Trisha Brown and her work, and perhaps others who are more expert than I am will chime in. I did not see Set and Reset back in the day, and cannot respond to your comment on her trajectory. Watching it now, I admired the structure, and I loved the haphazard clustering of activity on each side of the stage. But what registered more — in a negative way — was the affectless performance tone; lack of dramatic arc, and deadpan disconnection from the audience. The operating concept of drifting through time and space haphazardly encountering others disturbs me. Is that all there is? It bored me by the end. I thought the dancers did less well with it than with the Marshall work. But what a fun contrast to see them side by side!
Yea, I also thought the “Rooster” excerpts were very entertaining and voraciously performed. Correct me if I’m wrong, but after Trisha Brown’s “Set and Reset” was made, her movement vocabulary became less soft and sequential–almost thrown away–and more classic modern dance. Sure, Steve Petronio and Randy Warshaw left the company to create their own, but what I remember of “M.O.” and later Brown pieces were well made, but without the looseness of S&R or the earlier solo and small group work. Please advise, thanks.