| . | 04/13/2008
Eliot Feld: Mandance Project
By: Joel Benjamin
Eliot Feld, in his Mandance Project guise, returned to his home base, the Joyce Theater, for the first time in two years presenting two previously seen works plus two premieres. Six dancers in beautifully nuanced performances illuminated his sometimes difficult, often mesmerising choreography.
"Backchat" (2004) opened the program. The score by Paul Lansky used melodic overlapping talking which often took on almost Latin-American music rhythms. The set by Mimi Lien and Mr. Feld was a section of a wall which suggested an urban setting. Over this wall came Anthony Bryant, Wu-Kang Chen and Adrian Danchig-Waring (guesting from the New York City Ballet) dressed in colorful, tight bicycle messenger outfits designed by Camille Assaf. The three lithe dancers hung off the wall, gyrated against it, clawed at it and several times combined their bodies in multi-limbed sculptural formations. At the end they hoisted themselves up and over the wall and disappeared behind it.
In "Backchat," Mr. Feld managed to portray in microcosm urban anxiety, sexuality and energy using repetitive, simple movements.
In "Pursuing Odette" (2006), however, the repetition didn't work as well, mostly because the score, Mahler's Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony, overwhelmed both the choreographer and the dancer, Ha-Chi Yu. Before a black and white backdrop that suggested a ying-yang symbol, Ms. Yu, also in black and white, performed undulations and many yearning stretches on the floor, all the while having one foot bare and one enclosed in a toe shoe. It didn't help that the few piques arabesques she did were weakly executed on the pointe shoe clad side. Mr. Feld gave Ms. Yu some movements reminiscent of well-known swan ballets including undulating arms and the Dying Swan floor poses but "Pursuing Odette" never was more than a charming tidbit.
"Undergo," a premiere, was definitely not a tidbit of a ballet. Performed to an esoteric, often irritating, score of moaning, gasping, grating voices (composed and performed by Meredith Monk), "Undergo" was a Gordian knot of mysterious movements that proved very difficult to unravel. The set pieces designed by Ms. Lien & Mr. Feld included a large, illuminated lucite cube, a pile of crumpled plastic sheeting and, most prominently, a hanging sculpture of multiple rollers around which a length of brown paper was threaded. The work pitted Mr. Chen against a trio (Christopher Vo, Mr. Bryant and Ms. Yu) all dressed in body-revealing strips of black elastic cloth. After a long bending and crouching solo atop the lucite box, Mr. Chen was joined by the other three who journeyed from one part of the set to another, slowly pursuing and sometimes surrounding Mr. Chen. One dancer crawled under the plastic and became a ghostly, struggling figure; another placed herself on the cube, extending and contracting her legs; while another was turning in a slow-motion effort to deal with his own demons. There was much Butoh coloring in "Undergo" in its sad struggles, all of which ended in Mr. Chen pulling the paper down from the rollers and encasing himself in it, creating a harrowing, lonely cocoon. Did "Undergo" deal with alienation? Depression? Personal demons? Maybe all or none of these.
A bit clearer was the final work on the program, "Isis in Transit," another premiere.
Performed to a Steve Reich violin score, "Isis" was a solo for the exquisite Fang-Yi Sheu. Dressed in Ms. Delft's simple black bikini costume, Ms. Sheu moved amongst the Noguchiesque set designed, again, by Ms. Lien and Mr. Feld. According to the program notes the work was about this Egyptian goddess's journey to collect the scattered remains of her brother Osiris, but "Isis in Transit" also intimated a journey through life which we non-gods could observe and join in vicariously. There was a long sculpture that indicated hills in the distance; a jungle of tall plastic tubing, like an enormous patch of out of control grass; a staircase-ramp combination covered in a plastic hood; and two large concave discs.
Ms. Sheu entered in a stylized walk which took her over the "hills" on the horizon and into the grasslike setpiece in which she grasped bunches of tubing, bending precariously over the edge and hiding herself in crouching poses. She balanced in treading steps on the two discs which were constructed to focus the overhead lights on her creating otherworldly images. Most movingly, she crawled up the ramp and lowered herself down the steps under the clear lucite coffin, her breath fogging it up as she slowly and painfully progressed down and out from its claustrophobic and frightening confines. The final image of her gazing upward as she stood on one of the discs conveyed both hopefulness and hopelessness.
The movements were simple: swinging hips, walking steps, yearning bends, crawling and unforced stretching. But, Ms. Sheu imbued them all with dignity, always connecting the different sections with the movement logic that all fine dancers have.
This was a thoughtful and thought-provoking program, eliciting pleasure and confusion in almost equal measures. Eliot Feld is certainly at the top of his game, going about his business without pandering to his audience, giving us a challenging program of fine work.
THE MANDANCE PROJECT
Choreography by Eliot Feld
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave.
New York, NY 10011
212-242-0800
April 9 - 20, 2008
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