Solo, Trio, Solo—Standouts From Juried Show Evoke Dark Interiors

Dances from DTW's juried showcase tried to disquiet, although only three did so exceptionally. In his gutsy Wind Lays Waste, Alex Escalante slid from calm into movement so fitful, speeds so disfiguring, that we worried about him. Invisible gales knocked him around, tossed him up again. He was the amphibious wrestler of a floor suddenly slick with oil. In Jennie Marytai Liu's Bloodwork, a man bearing tools visited two crooked women. He played mock surgeon to their broken typewriter, a swift fix. But the threesome continued on in cryptic horseplay, raggedly negotiating the chair and the table. They bumped and manipulated each other rudely but with rapacious charms. And despite the chilling vacancy in their oversize voices, we laughed.

Ayako Kato's feet took off their own shoes and socks in Land the land—standing point. Carefully stranded then, this mute minimalist inched through a panorama of long, inner isolation. Kelly Bartnick, MayDance, and the New Ugly also presented.