Mills Probes Dislocations of Anatomy, Thought, and Feeling, Solo and Partnered

Tiffany Mills specializes in violently visceral movement yanked into a disturbing twinship with the flawed neurology that produces spasms of brain and body. The vocabulary drives the compelling trilogy her game group of five showed at the Joyce: Goetia and Elegy, both from 2003, and a chunk of Godard, to premiere in 2005. In itself, the physical work has a limited fascination. At her best, Mills uses it to suggest extreme states of mind—psychotic hallucination and harrowing dreams. At her very best, she probes the relationship between the stricken and the ostensibly whole. She tells us that out-of-control force and skewed perceptions belong to us all; that the person doling out succor to the maimed often becomes the victim, assailant, mortal enemy of the poor soul so desperately in need of care; that, moreover, the whole world is operating at the end of its rope. The choreography is set to high-energy, brilliantly unhinging John Zorn scores—a perfect choice.