Choreographers Take Us out on Location for Brainy, Sexy Thrills

A shared program by Andy Russ and Lionel Popkin offered excursions to the studio and the kitchen (with adjoining bedroom). Russ, a cerebral kind of guy, has constructed his 9 spaces for 5 people on a handsome phrase of deep lunges and delicate offhand gestures that he and four dancers reiterate with shifts in space and time until it looks like—well, choreography. A solo for himself, removed, anatomizing the psyche of a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown, uses restricted vocabulary and clear, tight structure to depict catastrophic disorder. Popkin, in And Then We Eat, yields first to the senses. The duet, choreographed with the collaboration of his dancing partner, the phenomenal Carolyn Hall, features the preparation of a one-dish dinner, using a compact kitchen in a crate. The dancing—strong, pliant, and full of body-upon-body maneuvers—suggests that the culinary activities are a metaphor for more intimate adventures a couple can enjoy at home.