Dance Review: Rebecca Davis at DTW

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Rebecca Davis DTW rocks it out presenting Rebecca Davis as part of their Studio Series which gives selected artists 100 hours of rehearsal space, a stipend, and two nights of studio presentations. Davis’ piece, loving means ramming, uses gestures and images passing through a spectrum of experiences and feelings, ultimately leaving the audience with a satisfying sense of just how fleeting and beautiful childhood can be.

As the audience enters, entangled groups of dancers litter the space. Rebecca Davis and Andrea Johnston perform a captivating duet while bound by their braided hair; navigating the space with awkward walks, lunges, and a little hair pulling. They struggle down to the floor and unbraid their hair in an act touchingly intimate, though it ends up separating them. A rhythmic stream of dancers interrupts the pair, encircling them and hiding the duo from sight. The group gently purrs and leaves as abruptly as they entered.

Join iDANZ Today! Davis and Johnston mirror one another in an amazing act of flawless symmetry. How long did they practice to create such perfect unison? They move together, speaking a stream of synchronized phallic euphemisms which ends with an elongated call of, “Schloooooong!!!” bringing the other dancers out of their entangled sleep. The group then sings what sounds like the chorus of “Baby Got Back” (Sir Mix-A-Lot is totally making a comeback!) The duo, having had enough of each other, split to join new groups and find new games.

Scenes flow seamlessly, one into the next, giving the piece it’s own internal logic. In one moment the dancers are the sea, their long hair being flung to the sound of the ocean; in another, a newspaper is folded into an origami bird. In the end, some dancers speak an elongated “hellooooo” into fans, causing the others to swirl out of a patterned movement phrase. Scattering around the space like dandelion seeds, they exit until one dancer remains, alone. Was it all a memory?

Rebecca Davis has started something fresh and exciting. It is currently a work in progress and I can’t wait to see the finished product. If you have a chance to check her out in the future, I totally recommend it!

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Hope Davis
Performance: Studio Series: Rebecca Davis loving means ramming
Choreographer:  Rebecca Davis
Venue: DTW, Dance Theater Workshop, New York City
Date: April 10, 2009
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