John Jasperse Company.LINCOLN HALL Lincoln Hall may refer to one of the following: Persons
John Josperse is a cerebral choreographer whose work is about his creative process and what he thinks of the world today. CALIFORNIA runs tree to form. Driven by Jonathan Bepler's percussive per·cus·sive adj. Of, relating to, or characterized by percussion. per·cus  sive·ly adv. , dissonant dis·so·nant adj. 1. Harsh and inharmonious in sound; discordant. 2. Being at variance; disagreeing. 3. Music Constituting or producing a dissonance. music, CALIFORNIA is certainly intellectual, the placement of the five dancers--including the choreographer--in solos, duets, and occasional trios and quintets so calculated that they look more like chess pawns than humans. This dispassionate dis·pas·sion·ate adj. Devoid of or unaffected by passion, emotion, or bias. See Synonyms at fair1. dis·pas response to what appears to be life's disasters and broken dreams made it hard to give a tinker's damn about any of it. In addition, although Jasperse is a fine craftsman, his limited vocabulary--floor rolls, planned contact improvisation, angular arm and leg extensions, and gawky intertwinings punctuated by small movements of the hands, feet, and head--and the glacial pace at which it was performed make the work downright boring. What is interesting about it is French Lebanese architect Ammar Eloueini's marvelous aluminum-and-rope set piece and the ways in which Jasperse integrates it into the choreography. Suspended over the stage as the dancers, costumed in mechanics' coveralls, enter tiptoeing, it Inns the elegant sweep of an airplane wing. They exit and return holding leaf blowers, using them to move the sculpture into a different position. Next, a single person rotates it, after which four team up to deconstruct de·con·struct tr.v. de·con·struct·ed, de·con·struct·ing, de·con·structs 1. To break down into components; dismantle. 2. it, then stand huddled. The piece ends--or rather simply stops--with two dancers in a tangle of distorted extensions beneath the crumpled crum·ple v. crum·pled, crum·pling, crum·ples v.tr. 1. To crush together or press into wrinkles; rumple. 2. To cause to collapse. v.intr. 1. wing. Costumes too are transformed. Halfway through, the dancers remove their coveralls, revealing tattered-looking, dirty underwear. Is this meant to show the victims of a plane crash? A bombing? Maybe CALIFORNIA is more about 9/11--I saw it on the third anniversary--than the Golden State. A co-production of the Brooklyn Academy of Music Brooklyn Academy of Music, performing arts center located in the borough of Brooklyn, N.Y. and popularly known as BAM. Founded in 1859 and opened in 1861, it is the oldest such institution still in operation in the United States. (where it will be performed this month as part of the Next Wave Festival), Le Festival International Danse a Cannes, and Le Centre National de la Danse, the work premiered in France in 2003. Its U.S. premiere was part of Portland Institute for Contemporary Art's second Time-Based Art Festival. FOR MORE INFORMATION www.johnjasperse.org |
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