Yvonne Meier.

YVONNE MEIER THE KITCHEN, NYC MARCH 16-18, 2006 REVIEWED BY SUSAN YUNG

Yvonne Meier must be a shaman. She somehow left everything--and nothing--to chance in a delirious evening of two new works, this is not a pink pony: take 1 and 2 and Gogolorez or the mystery of the flying cow. The dancers improvised within the structure of a "score." Meier assumed the role of emcee for much of the evening, roaming the stage with a microphone and giving commands in her Teutonic lilt. One absurd scene followed another--the effect was like a ringleader trying to contain the chaos of a three-ring circus.

Pink pony--a triangle between Osmany Tellez, Marion Ramirez, and Arturo Vidich--featured props and task-oriented movements drawn from children's "work": playground games, soccer, gymnastics, and hyperactivity, including phrases of spastic limb-flinging and colliding. Rope-jumping ranged from basic to balletic. Aggressive child's play became analogous to the give-and-take in romantic relationships. A soundtrack (uncredited) from rock songs to Mancini-like noir, was punctuated by occasional gunfire and explosions, with bass heavy enough to shake the house. Ramirez was abducted by two mysterious, ape-suited dancers.

In Gogolorez, DD Dorvillier, Jennifer Monson, Fabio da Silva, Jeremy Wade, Nami Yamamoto, and Miguel Gutierrez all wore ape suits (echoing the ending of pink pony), which they stripped off immediately. They picked up another dancer, Jennifer Miller, and deposited her on the laps of viewers as Meier deadpanned, "Everyone loves audience participation." A football-shaped cooler disgorged ropes (for jumping), clothes (donned), and towels (with which Meier directed the dancers to make a beautiful mosaic). She threw out commands like "Use your tongue," "Make a foreign sound," "Make an incredible design with the ropes." Meier tore down the backdrop and covered the dancers with it. She cued them with "Orgy!" and they writhed, struggled to stand, and walked upstage like a 12-legged monster. Hoisting Yamamoto overhead, they flew her around the stage in the "Pina Bausch section." As the evening wound down, Meier commanded the audience to clap--somewhat of a relief in these times of frequently indeterminate endings. It didn't matter, though--the ovation flowed from the giddy audience.