Newspoem 6 April 2010
Dance Concert Review:
Three Theories (Armitage Gone! Dance, Choreographer: Karole Armitage)
Tryon Festival Theater
If art is a triumph of the human spirit over boredom, insincerity, pain, torpor, depression, oppression, repression, winter, aging, and death, then dance is the ultimate victory not only of aesthetics but athletics, not only over the grave but gravity.
I know this choreography is supposed to explicate the big bang, but all I’m getting is that these people are hot. Holy God. Heavenly bodies. You could sharpen a knife on those abdomens. Not a teaspoon of fat. So thin they cast no shadow. String theory. Is this why rednecks lust TV sports? The brain is muscle; muscle is a brain. Quantum sex mechanics. If we think the behavior of subatomic particles is unintuitive, imagine what the quarks would think of this dance. Flesh machines. If I had just one of their legs, I’d never stop hopping. Slay me with your grace. The exertion and precision-class, sass, and ass-on that stage is a stellar fuck you to sloth, mediocrity, reruns, and lack of curiosity about the universe. They’re beyond hot — they’re NUCLEAR.
Let your every thought and action sculpt an artful gesture against the tidal pull of inevitable descent. Though in the end you will be pulled into the undertow, curtsey with grace as you go down for your final bow. This is life. This is dance.