House Party

by Deni Kasrel

dance

Polished productions are all well and good, but not good enough for the folks at DanceHouse. They want experimentation, to try things out for size. Melanie Stewart, a driving force behind the project, explains, "DanceHouse is where you work on inception. These pieces will form the basis of larger works." The program features both established and emerging artists who have spent time sharing ideas and giving constructive feedback to one another. The process, says Stewart, helps prevent "creating work in a vacuum but it's not just about patting each other on the back, it's also about challenging one another though discourse and investigation."

Of course, dancer-artist buddies may have one point of view while a live audience may have quite another, so the next step is to stage these raw works at DanceHouse to see how they fly. Emerging artists here include Laura Peterson, who screens "Security," a comical video based on the theme of a surveillance camera. Elisa Lane appears akin to a puppet that suddenly finds itself with no strings attached in "(Dis)engage." Makoto Hirano's "The Format (Revised Meditation)" serves up a parody of what it takes to create a dance theater piece, while Dan Trotter's "Purging" explores the perils of life, death and the hereafter. Established artists include Headlong Dance Theater, Subcircle, plus Megan Bridge and Bethany Formica. 'Tis a full slate, but with the pace of a variety show: All pieces are under 10 minutes.

DanceHouse, Fri.-Sat., March 11-12, 8 p.m., $15, Dance Theater at the Drake, 1512 Spruce St., 215-359-7775.

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