| . | 03/29/2008
ELECTROLUX
By: Leslie deLeo
Electrolux, a 50-minute dance piece set to the music of Led Zeppelin, was inspired by Edward Burtnynsky’s large scale photographs of “magnificent landscapes of industrial waste” outside the manufacturing plants in China. Mesmerized by the “shapes and patterns” of the waste, Ms. Peterson pondered the bizarre beauty of the photographs while admitting the grim reality of the human devastation of the environment.
Electrolux reflects the constant impact that one action has on another: from dancers’ footprints on a pristine white carpet to the mountains of clutter that block our physical path; and finally, to the mazes we create for ourselves while trying to untangle and control our ever-changing environment.
The piece is effervescent-like a geyser. The choreography (created by Laura Peterson with input from the other 3 dancers in her company) is purposeful, assured, bold and elegant. The dancers (Laura Peterson, Katie Harris and Kate Martel, with their choppy asymmetrical haircuts and clear red lips and Christopher Hutchings with his riotous brown curls) appear as fresh and crisp as their movements.
Katie Harris, Kate Martel and Laura Peterson in ELECTROLUX
(Photo by Steven Schreiber)
Springing and bounding across the carpet, diving into piled coils of snake-like tubes, the dancers express both joy at discovery and frustration at the changes that mark the human experience. They circle around each other, twirl with whip like movements and periodically stride past each other in a focused, almost frenzied need to connect and control their own experience. There are moments of a powerful synergy: at one point the dancers synchronize their movements, culminating in perfect head banging nods that wittily accompany Led Zeppelin’s “Ramble On.”
The music of Led Zeppelin, known for its pulsing accessibility to the hearts and heads of three generations of heavy metal lovers and life-ponderers alike, is super compositionally advanced, thanks in part to the musical versatility of band member John Paul Jones. The complexity of the music’s structure supports its pulsing weight, and matches very well with the dancers movements that seem straightforward on the surface—but belie turmoil underneath. (There is no separating the music from the movement: in fact, it reverberates so strongly through the space that earplugs are handed out at the space’s entrance.)
Laura Peterson gets tangled up
(Photo: Steven Schreiber)
The crisp costumes (by Laura Peterson) evoke nautical armor; windbreakers to protect against the harsh shifting and buffeting of life. The set of plush white carpet, grey pillars, and coils of tubing (also by Laura Peterson) reflects both the opportunities and the challenges that present itself in the human experience. The rich, subtly-changing lighting (created by Mandy Ringger, Dance New Amsterdam’s Production Manager and Resident Lighting Director) adds a horizon-like element to the set and reflects the passage of time.
ELECTROLUX is a powerful statement on the ways we encounter and try to suck up the garbage in our lives. Thoughtfully conceived and expertly executed, the show is crisp but not slick, sophisticated yet fresh—a fine addition to the New York dance scene and an admirable effort of collaboration between Laura Peterson Choreography and Dance New Amsterdam.
Laura Peterson, Christopher Hutchings and Katie Harris
(Photo by Steven Schreiber)
Saturday, March 29 8:00pm, Sunday, March 30
Tickets: $20 ($15 members, $17 students)
Call Ticket Central at Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway, 2nd Floor (212) 279-4200
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