One decade ago, choreographer Miguel Gutierrez invented his participatory performance DEEP AEROBICS, a protest-cum-workout that been presented in Paris, Brussels, Helsinki, and Montpelier. Gutierrez has since written that he hopes to “destroy the technique, because it’s just too hard to teach, and the world is going to hell in a hand basket anyway.”
Watch out what you wish for, Miguel. K-D-A-VER, a work he will present in Los Angeles, is the fulfillment of an artist’s dream, a one-time solo performance that goes beyond merely killing a darling of a work. He will kick its corpse.
With brazen honestly and wit, his self-critique becomes our critique, as he abandons his efforts to generate the pleasures of resistance that gave DEEP AEROBICS its life. For one night, he picks the bones of a past work, lays a shroud over its hopes, and invites us to witness a ritualized interment of the joys of the past. Come dressed to participate. Or not.
Miguel Gutierrez K-D-A-VER | Live Arts Los Angeles | Eagle Rock | Feb 3