UPSY-DAISY!
Orlin, a South African artist known in her native country for her choreography, has been performing her remarkably visual work in Chicago for the last year. In the context of our town’s text-oriented performance community, Orlin immediately stands out: not a word is spoken during her show. But her athletic, richly layered work speaks in an intuitive, familiar language.
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The version of Upsy-Daisy! performed at the Blue Rider takes place on an L-shaped platform, one leg of which is up against the wall (at the School of the Art Institute, where Orlin presented the piece for her master’s thesis, the platform hugged two walls, allowing more movement and creativity). Eric Leonardson of the Experimental Sound Studio sits underneath it and serves as a combination techie and gofer. He tinkers with the sound board, hands props to Orlin, puts things away, and at one point even acts as a kind of silent cheerleader. Although Leonardson is mostly buried under the platform, his presence is neither wholly pragmatic nor inconsequential. His deadpan expression and automatic gestures match Orlin’s, confirming, in a weird way, the piece’s invented reality.
Orlin’s Williams risks becoming a caricature in order to promote what’s important to her: a new sport, a new view of women as capable and strong, her own financial independence. The Williams section is easily the most developed, the most complete and concrete of the three, and the one with perhaps the most relevance to contemporary women’s issues. It also ends the show with a deep sense of wonder, a terrific human connection.
