RAW WORKS
But what may have seemed raw at one time, like the oriental dances of Ruth St. Denis, often look hopelessly overcivilized to later generations. Making a dance starts the cultural cooking process, slowly transforming the raw elements into idealized, stylized gestures. The pleasure of Janson’s dances comes from watching her both discover new raw elements and start the cooking process.
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The concert’s first dance, Raw Work #1, emphatically illustrates the new elements Janson is using. Before the house lights have dimmed a body comes running down the aisle at Link’s Hall and does a turning jump at the front of the stage. The woman (Janson) runs to the back wall, does another turning jump, and disappears through a side door. Returning a few minutes later, she leaps through the same side door and lets the momentum carry her through several more contracted turns. She stops and makes a series of odd gestures–twitches her head to the side, says “Hey,” slaps herself on the face, and slowly starts to poke herself in the eyes with two fingers. Janson’s quirky gestures are certainly raw, but her off-center leaps and turns are more interesting. Her body is released, and she does not try to show a line or shape to the audience; instead, her momentum dictates her shape, and clear lines emerge naturally from her movement. The dance ends wittily–Janson stops, faces the audience and starts to smile, then hides the smile, but as she walks backward it starts to reappear as the lights fade.
Throughout 800th Lifetime Janson, dressed in an evening gown, sits in a chair at the front of the stage staring at a box of chocolates. When the dance starts, she gobbles chocolates while laughing and crying hysterically. Five dancers (Alexandra Beller, Peter Carpenter, Paul Cipponeri, Kande Culver, and Amanda Stanger) stand in a line at the back of the stage, the women dressed in evening gowns and the men in dark pants, white shirts, and ties. The bulk of the dance is a collage of images–after the dancers line up one behind the other, the front dancer yells “Thank you,” then is shoved aside by the next dancer; they boogie jerkily, then embrace each other tightly and sway slowly; a woman leaps on a man’s back repeatedly as he slowly walks away. As the dance progresses, one by one the dancers change onstage into loose black pants and tops with metal ornaments. Finally Janson obsessively lays chocolates across the front of the stage, and the dancers dash between the back wall and the line of chocolates until at the end one of them triumphantly discovers a chocolate. The dance seems intended to represent breaking out of daily routines to discover the chocolate morsel; it succeeds because of the dancers’ high spirits and because Janson’s raw movement embodies a joy of life. Winston Damon’s hurdy-gurdy-like music adds to the dance’s high spirits and quirkiness.
