Irene and I went to see Alexandra Beller/Dances ‘s at the Abron Arts Center then debriefed afterwards at Great New York Noodletown – where we saw former Mayor Ed Koch eating at a quiet table in the corner. He seemed to be staring at me, which was an odd thing as I was trying hard to give him his space. Irene and I had a great talk sans Vixia. I’ve decided to carry the camera more often.
Back to Alexandra – I like her work a lot. There were moments tonight too, you can’t go to one of Alexandra’s shows and not have some significant moments. What’s the word that means excellence and expertise in performance? Insert that word here. There’s always lots of beauty and little miracles happening with AB/D. This show didn’t kick my ass like the one I saw a year or two ago however, though some elements were reprised.
I am getting a little annoyed with the NYC independent dance cliche – over the top choreography set to kitchy pop songs, cynical send ups of consumer culture and predictable parodies of fitness, motivational and self help programs. Fold in a liberal helping of angst and disconnection. What with the flurries of magic and beauty offered by Alexandra and company, the annoyance was minimal. But I’ve seen a lot of that aesthetic around town in the last year, not the least of which was Moving Theater’s spookily brilliant ‘Last Dance’ at the Park Avenue Armory.
Alexandra passed out fortune cookies. Here is what Irene’s and mine said – they probably all said that. This was the Sensuround driving home the show’s theme – belief is bullshit. In the context of the Desire show it was pure synchronicity.
