Reviewed by Christopher Atamian, SLSG Experimental Dance Critic
Watching the delightfully down-to-earth Laura Pawel Dance Company is an intensely comforting experience, like sitting down to a meal with an old friend, or in this case, seven old friends as it were. Better than being guillotined? Most definitely!
A graduate of Sarah Lawrence at a time when the school produced a cadre of dance pioneers including Lucinda Childs and Meredith Monk, Pawel has been on the New York City dance scene since the late 1960’s, part of the post-Judson Church movement that was more interested in everyday movement and dialogue than virtuoso jumps or classical dance technique. The company members are all well above forty today and a few have what can only be considered eccentric day jobs for a dancer: Emily Kistler, for one, is an operating room nurse…
In all three pieces presented at The Flea in its recent three-day run, company members walked, hopped, skipped, twitched, bent and moved limbs in all directions—everything was fluently set and executed, and yet one also felt that the performers had the freedom to improvise during this short, one-hour presentation. (There was little or no dancing in the sense that one usually thinks of it.) In the lead piece Better than Being Guillotined (2008) no one spoke—facial expressions and body movements were on display instead, as were simple interactions between performers who walked past, around and sometimes into each other. There Might be Mangoes (2009) relied on quotidian, nutty and strange observations and questions that company members asked and then answered, many laced with a particularly deadpan, wry New York sense of humor: “When I said sure come on in, I really meant get lost,” or “Question: What if a guy with t-shirt that reads Free hug were walking towards you?” Answer: ”I’d run in the opposite direction.”
Much to Ms. Pawel’s credit, her performers each maintained their own individual, often quirky personalities. Pamela Finney was hilariously caustic as she cut the air with brusque, scissor-like movements; Maki Kurakawa who posited the ever-important distinction between mango pickle and mango chutney, was almost deliberately congenial. Pawel herself maybe the most polished of the lot: in the premiere of the wonderfully funny Easy for You to Say, she moved with a precise and lovely, flowing grace as Jim Finney narrated a sailing trip gone slightly amiss under the Tappan Zee Bridge…
“Better than Being Guillotined and other dances” would have been worth attending if only for the exquisite live music by The Cecilia Coleman Quartet who played soft, soulful jazz and a wistful guitar-cum-harmonica combination by Gene Caprioglio and Barebones which hit a perfect note with audience members. Unfortunately, the company was only at The Flea for three nights. Anyone fascinated by dance history or simply looking for a mellow, enjoyable night out—the type of performance that still makes New York an arts mecca—should be on the lookout for their next appearance. It’s bound to be another perfect occasion to just sit back, relax and enjoy the show…
