JOSEPH HOLMES CHICAGO DANCE THEATRE
at the Dance Center of Columbia College, February 4-6
None of the hooks worked for me. Because I grew up in a small town, Marvin Gaye’s music was not part of my life; as a result Medley meant almost nothing to me except some dance pyrotechnics. Holmes’s dances seemed dated. The Long Road, for instance, uses a heroin addict, a middle-aged woman abandoned by her lover, and a woman in poverty to illustrate the range of women’s grief; this prefeminist piece offers a remarkably stereotyped vision of women.
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Eisen’s Event #2 is modeled on Merce Cunningham’s happenings in the 1960s. Each dancer dances the same set phrase and then improvises; the order in which the dancers appear and of their other phrases is determined by chance just before each performance. This is the polar opposite of Holmes’s work. Holmes’s hooks are narrow but can be powerful–the dance grabs at your heart, and you either love it or hate it. Eisen’s happening has a broad, diffuse quality that never grabs your attention or your heart but slowly penetrates your mind with large questions. Why do I expect reason and order in a dance? Why do I expect reason and order at any time?
Eisen is aided by his excellent dancers: Juli Hallihan-Campbell, Carl Jeffries, Shannon Raglin, Julie Worden, Prindle, Putman, and Smith. Their precise control embodies Isadora Duncan’s precept: “Strength at the center; freedom at the surface.” Even when performing wild, odd movement, these dancers are always in control and shift easily into the next movement. The Joseph Holmes dancers stun us with their strength and flexibility, but the subtler craft of these dancers is no less stunning.
