So tonight Anne and I drove down I5 and took the Union St exit, which I never do. I always figure out how to take Hwy 99 instead, and then drive through interminable downtown intersections gawking at the city. I come from a small town on a small island (Nassau, on New Providence, which is 21 miles long and 7 miles wide), and still enjoy the height of even a smaller city. Go ahead, call the guy from the Bahamas a “tourist.”
Anyway, we went to see Glimmer of hope or skin or light KT Niehoff / Lingo Dance’s piece showing at ACT in the beautiful Bullitt Theatre. I had multiple reasons to see this:
1. I have actually appeared in a KT piece - as a stagehand at OnTheBoards - go figure?
2. I am a fan of Ivory Smith’s crazy voice. Her band is on the stage.
3. Quadrophonic sound design from Jabon, aka Scott Colburn, the Audio Wizard.
We ran into Rob Witmer in the lobby, he was going to see On The Nature of Dust which he did the sound design for. Then we ran into choreographer Pat Graney, who is marvelous, calls me Julian Manoolian, and is one of very few people I have been to prison with. Spotted: Brett Fetzer, Dayna Hanson and Dave Proscia. On to the show!
As you walk in, you are greeted by dancers in wonderful costumes, and truly staggeringly makeup. They are flirting, touching shoulders, standing a little too close, these are the cabaret performers. Ivory in Iceworld is playing at background volume, I was impressed with the sound at this point. There are costumes hanging in the corners, and 3 dance floors in addition to the band’s stage. The lights dim, and the dance proper begins. The dancers move around the space and the audience follows, reminding me of Sara Michelson’s Daylight.
Highlights –
Scott Colburn’s music is really setting the mood. Some of the more rhythmic pieces would fit perfectly into one of Riz Rollin’s mixes.
KT sings with the band, and proves her ability as a performer yet again, she is intense! She and Ivory sing well together too. The punk rock surprise was VERY surprising.
The rest –
I found the show very difficult to engage with. All the dance and interactive elements felt unfinished and or improvised. Despite there being some of my favorite dancers in Seattle in the piece (Michael Rioux and Ricki Mason stand out) I just didn’t dig the dance itself.. Unfortunately this left the playing with sex and cabaret feeling gimmicky – I wanted to get into it, but mainly felt uncomfortable. The moving around ended up not working, though I did like the idea of being “in” the dance, the dancers having to ask people to move because the choreography was coming that way was distracting. As usual there were moments, some beautiful, some painful – a dancer falls down the stairs, a naked man is yelling Dennis Hopper quotes. Still it felt like a really good second draft.
Here’s some links
http://www.gravelvoice.com/jabon/
http://www.myspace.com/ivorysmith
Blog Roll
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/we-stink/Content?oid=3997027
http://seattledances.blogspot.com/2010/04/lingo-glimmer-opens-at-act-this-week.html
http://www.artdish.com/post/2010/04/28/A-Glimmer-of-Hope-or-Skin-or-Light.aspx
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