Merce Cunningham Dance Company | HARRIS THEATER FOR MUSIC AND DANCE, FRI 10/12
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CRWDSPCR, a 1993 ensemble work on the Cunningham company’s first program at the Harris last weekend, is particularly odd looking. The merciless unitards that are Cunningham’s signature–revealing every articulation of the body as well as every bump–are divided into four different-colored quadrants. What Not to Wear wouldn’t approve of this harlequin look, but it does enhance perception of the body’s divisions. In an early mass section, with all 13 dancers doing something different, I focused on one “walking” bizarrely, one leg crossing over the other with each step, his arms and chest curved forward and head facing straight ahead. After several steps he’d take a little leap, not gaining much height or distance because of the undancerly position of his spine.
CRWDSPCR is filled with such phrases. But as odd as they are, and as odd as the heavily manipulated sampling of John King’s steel guitar recording is, what’s even odder is the way it all adds up to a simultaneously exhilarating and hypnotizing experience. Cunningham, now 88, is famously intrigued by Zen principles, and CRWDSPCR definitely has a Zen effect.
But eyeSpace was the least satisfying dance of the three. The intentionally inane songs are wildly atypical of Cunningham’s usual spare scores, referencing a variety of pop styles from around the globe and including lyrics like “Look who’s shopping at the Gaza Strip mall” and “I almost lost my fork, but I did not lose my fork” (which sounds caressingly suggestive in French). In between songs or when I briefly lifted my headphones I could hear the score being broadcast in the theater; it included city sounds like car horns and sounded vaguely threatening. It made me feel like we were people on the el or the street erasing our surroundings with our own personal soundtracks.
Through 10/21: Fri-Sun 8 PM, Link’s Hall, 3435 N. Sheffield, 773-281-0824, $15
