I’ve given in to the inertia of Facebook, and I’ll never be the same. I’m amazed (and a little appalled) at my capacity to spend hours in a delirium of fake plants and fake flair, pondering a clever “status update” to impress my virtual friends. Still, I guess it’s mostly just replaced the time I stole to watch America’s Next Top Model and Step it Up and Dance.
Between Celebreality and Cyber-reality, pop culture entertainment is cropping up a lot in contemporary performance. I know I’m not the first to point this out, but I’m thinking about it in particular after watching Eleanor Bauer’s AT LARGE at The Chocolate Factory last night.
AT LARGE was ambitious and thoughtful (and has garnered a lot of press attention.) — [On a side note, has anyone noticed that the verb "garnered" is only used in the past tense and only in reference to the object of "attention?"] Anyway — AT LARGE contains all kinds of little nods and winks to entertainment – gold sequins, catchy songs, a competition, even promotional give-aways. Yet, despite all of this, the main focus of the piece is movement. It’s old-school dance in a tricked-out package.
I found myself more interested in the packaging around the movement elements than the movement elements themselves, which made me wonder, “Am I so accustomed to being entertained by ironic glitter that I can’t engage with a smart, well-danced, movement exploration anymore?” If so, can I blame Tyra?
