Hofesh Shechter Company Overkill

I'm not even going to post a new link to the performance. (Ha! Fooled you.) But below are some of the mental interjections I managed to edit out of the more formal review. Many thanks to the editor at Culture Spot LA - my bleary late-night typing skills were spotty at best.

After this, I'll put the thing to rest and spend some time on local dances. (By the way, kudos to the DRC for event calendar updates! It's a start...) Ahem. The review, but longer:

A dance performance requires many feats. What a pun! There are rehearsals, technology, tour arrangements, box offices, and (in LA, anyway) maddening Friday evening traffic. Never, never, never drive a car on a Friday evening. Once these come together, it's easy to forget an important little question: Why? But in their West Coast debut at UCLA Live, Hofesh Shechter Company seemed to have built the query into the first dance on the bill.

The program notes for "Uprising" opt out of expository artist statements. And what a relief. I find few performance elements more irritating than not allowing the pieces speak for themselves. "Seven men emerge from the shadows to bombard the stage with furious energy," and so on. (And with dancers ever poised to roll, spar, or run, the energy in Shechter's work is not to be ignored. [Bombard would be the buzz word here if the program mentioned Shechter's use of the Paris youth riots as source material. But that's neither here nor there.]). What truly makes the piece, though, is its fragmentation, even if it took me the whole car ride conversation home to realize it. A stage of modern dancers becomes a circle of runners (cue my favorite snarky technical director: "why the hell are they running if it's a dance?" But again, neither here nor there.); the whole group devolves into a circle of back-patting, then slaps. (Cue the audience's organic, then awkward, laughter.) These quick shifts are so jarring that it's natural to ask what's really on view: Is this a political rant? Is it an over-energetic boys' club? Is it a show of the total control these dancers have over their limbs?

It seems like a bit of each in turn, as Shechter's accompanying music drives the piece along, almost forcibly. (Well... not almost. Just forcibly. Mark Morris would be proud. Throughout the evening, physical dynamics are frustratingly obedient to musical ones.) But the reminder to question is omnipresent. The "why" in "Uprising" has as many answers as audience members, as my viewing buddy reminded me on the drive home; added to the appeal of group mentality, tableau, and precision dancing, it makes the piece a worthwhile mental jog and aesthetic delight. Thirty minutes (or so?) flew by.

"In your rooms" certainly begins with a mental jog, when a voice chatters on about cosmic philosophy. The piece also makes incredible use of theatrical tools, most notably with shafts of light, and live musicians coming in and out of sight on a raised platform. This makes musical obedience slightly more tolerable... sometimes. But despite its impressive introduction and stagecraft, the piece fails where "Uprising" succeeds. Solitude and routine are so impressively stylized that plain kisses, embraces, and looks of concern seem like cheap tricks, and Shechter's greatest strength - the power of contrast - is lost.

This is not to overlook the dancing itself - every glance, every movement from the performers appears absolutely natural and exquisite. There are ensemble movements that recall Shechter's work with the renowned Batsheva Dance Company - without overshadowing his originality, which I think says a lot about his artistic integrity. And in the end, "In your rooms" pairs so well with "Uprising" that the performance would feel incomplete without the double bill.

With contrasts and questions, the work pleases and challenges. The question of "why" is invaluable (all the time, and everywhere - it's how we grow) and the changes in "Uprising" keep it coming - even if it slows down for "In your rooms." Though this is the company first West Coast performance, it certainly won't be the last. Shechter's style is a refreshing one, and an invitation to remind ourselves what we're seeing... and why.

The second (and final) Hofesh Shechter Company performance at UCLA Live is tonight (Saturday, Oct. 17) at 8 in Royce Hall. Tickets are $24-$28; for more information or to order tickets, visit www.uclalive.org.