Review: One City Under a Groove
These girls just want to have fun, says Jim Rutter.
By Jim Rutter
Don't expect a dance documentary in Pink Hair Affair's 1970s-styled One City Under a Groove. The decade defined by draft dodgers, disco and drugs saw only the last receive full treatment in the collaborative's 10 pieces.
None of the Pink Hair girls were even born until the mid-1980s, and drew at least some of their Me Decade knowledge from movies. Christine Steigerwald and Ashley Wood's playful "Space Magic" depicted two kids in a backyard light-saber battle. Jacklyn Koch donned an afro wig, blue denim jumper, and Pam Grier swagger in "Fluff That Fro," a piece that crackled with sisterhood sexuality as her legs enveloped the floor in splits and straddles.
The remaining pieces captured the spirit of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and the Beatles. Dancers drifted through a hallucinogenic haze, pirouetting lazily in long circles with rear legs pointed to the diamonds in the sky. Kaleigh Jones surfed across bodies as the ensemble rolled across the floor. A girl with stereophonic headphones swooned to a live guitarist; she caressed the bulbs covering her ears as he strummed his stick.
Ambience flowed from Gemini silhouettes, hanging beads, madras-cloth tapestries, headbands and bellbottoms. Disco received a nod in the final number, a feverish piece set to the Bee Gees (who else?).
A few narrative segments caught the era's turbulence. Laura Jenkins' "Braless, Brainless Broads" turned bra burning into burlesque, and Steigerwald's "Slipped Away" showed a college freshman seduced by a biker.
But rather than let these pieces beat the audience with issues, the choreographers cut them short. To borrow a song that Pink Hair Affair did grow up on, in dance, these girls just want to have fun.
No further performances.