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Version 4 Version 5
It Seemed to Have It All: 9 Dancers, 5 Guitars, 5 Amps It Seemed to Have It All: 9 Dancers, 5 Guitars, 5 Amps
(about 7 hours later)
The dance started — or seemed to start — with people walking onto the stage before finding a spot and lying down. The bright, blisteringly white lights made the view murky, yet through the haze random bodies were stretched out on backs and sides, utterly limp. Above them was a suspended zeppelin: Imagine a giant balloon of a baked potato floating over 34th Street in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.The dance started — or seemed to start — with people walking onto the stage before finding a spot and lying down. The bright, blisteringly white lights made the view murky, yet through the haze random bodies were stretched out on backs and sides, utterly limp. Above them was a suspended zeppelin: Imagine a giant balloon of a baked potato floating over 34th Street in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
But, really, the scene was somber. Eventually, others — dancers, recognizable by their bare feet — helped those on the floor, who turned out to be volunteers from the audience, rise to cross the stage. And some time later, they escorted them off the stage and back to their seats. In “takemehome,” by the French choreographer Dimitri Chamblas in collaboration with the musician Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, there is always a sense that something important is about to happen.But, really, the scene was somber. Eventually, others — dancers, recognizable by their bare feet — helped those on the floor, who turned out to be volunteers from the audience, rise to cross the stage. And some time later, they escorted them off the stage and back to their seats. In “takemehome,” by the French choreographer Dimitri Chamblas in collaboration with the musician Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, there is always a sense that something important is about to happen.
The problem with this presentation by Dance Reflections — the festival produced by Van Cleef & Arpels — and NYU Skirball, where it was performed on Friday evening, is that it stays firmly planted in a nebulous, largely unenergetic middle ground.The problem with this presentation by Dance Reflections — the festival produced by Van Cleef & Arpels — and NYU Skirball, where it was performed on Friday evening, is that it stays firmly planted in a nebulous, largely unenergetic middle ground.
What seems moody soon becomes drearily drawn out in this dance, of which the premise is promising: nine dancers, five electric guitars and five amplifiers — and Kim Gordon! (She and Chamblas have worked together since 2018.) I was excited for some noise, but earplugs weren’t needed for “takemehome,” which was dominated by prolonged silence or near silence; at times, Gordon’s voice, vocalizing sounds or a whispering, anguished “take me home,” cut through the air with an imploring urgency.What seems moody soon becomes drearily drawn out in this dance, of which the premise is promising: nine dancers, five electric guitars and five amplifiers — and Kim Gordon! (She and Chamblas have worked together since 2018.) I was excited for some noise, but earplugs weren’t needed for “takemehome,” which was dominated by prolonged silence or near silence; at times, Gordon’s voice, vocalizing sounds or a whispering, anguished “take me home,” cut through the air with an imploring urgency.
As the dancers shifted from states of action to stillness, they continually retreated to winding, improvisatory-seeming solos, which pegged them as loners or, as a program note compared them to, shadows: “The forgotten ones of the great metropolises: prisoners, elders, unproductive ghosts, the neglected, the indecisive.”