Dancers have a foot-ball
Sunday was cheerier at Susan Hess - with helmets and snacks, too.
It was a wet, gloomy Sunday night - the Eagles had just lost the NFC Championship game, and dozens of police cars were parked around City Hall, as officers in riot gear milled about, in preparation for mayhem that never came. But a few blocks away, the scene at Susan Hess Modern Dance, 2030 Sansom St., was reminiscent of game day a few hours earlier.
A line of people snaked up the stairs to get in. Every seat in the house was taken, and then some. During the 40-minute performance, audience members guzzled soda and threw snacks - not at a TV but at the performers. There were "ads" that affected our behavior. In one piece, dancers in helmets banged heads audibly and frequently.
The show, "In Performance," presented new work by Kate Watson-Wallace and Devynn Emory, alumnae of Susan Hess Modern Dance Choreographers Project.
Watson-Wallace presented "consumption study #1," a study for Store, which will complete her "American Space" dance trilogy. (The fantastic and otherworldly House and Car were presented at the 2006 and 2008 Philadelphia Live Arts/Philly Fringe Festivals respectively.) Program notes said Store would examine American greed.
A duet for Watson-Wallace and Emory, "consumption study #1" - set to music by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Josh Cicetti - had the two striking poses, dancing small movements, and slithering across the floor. On cue, several audience members near the stage opened bags of cheese curls and began munching or tossing them at the dancers; one man stood up and dumped his entire bag over Watson-Wallace.
Another group of audience members lined up and read slogans: "The future is bright, the future is orange," one read, and the cheese-curl people opened bottles of orange soda and began slurping. "We love to see you smile," another read, and the dancers put on ever-bigger smiles until audience members smiled and laughed back at them. The piece ended with Watson-Wallace face-down in the remains of the cheese curls, as if desperate to take them in.
Emory's Helmet featured three dancers - the choreographer, Danielle Paloumpis and Kathryn TeBordo - in yellow shirts and gray pants, each sporting a different color helmet. The dancers made witty comments, marched in formation, and frequently banged their heads on the ground and one another's helmets, providing visual interest and the percussion accompaniment.
Both pieces were innovative and fun, but they also had a definite "work-in-progress" feel. Emory, in particular, needs to work on the dancier sections of the piece if it is to become something more. A solo for TeBordo, described in the program as "fantastic," was largely forgettable.