A Few Good Men
DanceBOOM!'s Men Dancing program offers a rarity: a line-up of all male acts.
That women far outnumber men as concert dance performers is a curious situation. Dance requires strength and athleticism — both useful in many sports activities that are male magnets. OK, it's understandable that certain guys are not keen on wearing tights, but that's a ballet thing; it's no excuse for snubbing modern and contemporary genres. Whatever, the scales are tipped toward the female persuasion. Thus, DanceBOOM!'s Men Dancing program offered a rarity: a line-up of all male acts.
The event kicked off with Kingsessing Morris Men, who gave a streetside demonstration of English jigs dressed in traditional folkloric attire (including bells strapped to their knees). More street dance was seen inside, on the Wilma Theater's stage, when The Chosen Dance Company presented Look Ma ... No Feet! The piece offered poignant commentary on hip-hop's penchant for macho one-upmanship by having one member of the corps on crutches. At first the others mocked his inability to move about like they could, but then the entire group got down on the floor and performed to appear as though they had lost use of their legs. The head spins, windmills and backward handstands were standard hip-hop stunts; however, all movements were slowed down so that you could almost feel the effort it took to execute them.
Ahead of Myself featured Lionel Popkin in a solo that began with him bowing as if he'd just completed a performance. He then ventured into the audience with a tape recorder, asking people what they liked or did not like about his piece, the joke being that we did not see it. The tape was rewound and Popkin humorously improvised to the responses. When he tucked the tape into his tush — a truly inspired gesture — Popkin expressed a thought that many artists likely feel about critiques of their work.
Two more acts, danceTactics and Tommie-Waheed Evans, presented physically charged pieces that explored aspects of the human psyche. DanceTactics' JumpCut, built on gymnastic duets that held hints of capoiera, vacillated between manifestations of male tendencies toward combat and camaraderie. Evan's balletic Flood Light from Heaven, Dark Place Beneath, presented a scenario where a man embarks on an uncertain spiritual journey.
What's interesting about the full slate here is that while the cast was all male, the tone wasn't tilted toward overt displays of testosterone. These thoughtful performances were about movement art rather than the single-gender motif. Now that's puttin' dance front and center.
Men Dancing
May 30, Chosen Dance Co., Lionel Popkin, danceTactics, Tommie-Waheed Evans, DanceBOOM!, Wilma Theater, www.wilmatheater.org
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