Dance
Keeping it Kamp: Keigwin Kabaret at Symphony Space’s Thalia Dance, April 2009
If you avoid dance because it’s stuffy, or serious, or tedious, but you dig nudity and dirty jokes, Keigwin + Company’s Keigwin Kabaret is a good way to get your feet wet. Larry Keigwin effortlessly blends technique, wit, and social commentary in all of his work, but the Kabaret offers choice morsels from his Elements show (milking such reckless musical juxtapositions as Etta James and Devo) garnished by guest performances from Big Moves New York (three obese women shamelessly grooving in red and black lingerie), Bradford Scobie (a cowboy who ingenuously croons a dirty ditty about his fetish for fowl), and the World Famous BOB (a local burlesque star, who strips to her sparkles), all while emcee Ambrose Martos runs a light and lascivious commentary.
The stage is a bit small for Keigwin’s choreography, so dance aficionados might feel cheated, but it’s a rare treat to watch a very serious group of dancers Crank That Soulja Boy, Walk it Out, and run down the aisles whooping to Naughty by Nature’s rap classic “O.P.P.” (while you enjoy a cocktail). Keigwin + Company are clearly having fun rubbing high art’s face in the dirt, and we have fun watching them do it. More importantly, they have the skills to back it up.
Keigwin + Company. Credit: Matthew Murphy.
Contributor
Dalia RatnikasDALIA RATNIKAS is a sometimes-dancer sometimes-writer who enjoys playing with her toes and twisting her body like a pretzel. You can also find her at dahlhaus.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
The Grand Union: Accidental Anarchists of Downtown Dance
By Aileen DowlingSEPT 2020 | Dance
In what is held to be Banes’s definitive text on postmodern dance, Grand Union serves as almost a coda to a story in which Judson is the protagonist. However, in Wendy Perron’s new book The Grand Union: Accidental Anarchists of Downtown Dance, 1970-1976, the group gets their moment after nearly 50 years.
The Bon Iver Race Dance, Reviewed
By Adlan JacksonJUL-AUG 2020 | Dance
Bon Iver began collaborating with Minnesota's TU Dance, which was cofounded by Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri Sands, both Black veterans of Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Theater, to present Come Through, a contemporary dance performance—mixing modern dance, hip hop, and ballet among other movement styles—alongside a live Bon Iver set. With Come Through, Vernon chooses to engage directly, for the first time in his career and with unfortunately haphazard treatment, with images and media like a hoodie superimposed over the word "breathe," and audio from a speech by Viola Davis about Jim Crow racism given at the Women’s March.
Dance in the Making
By Anna Yudina , Diana Vishneva, and Olivier BerggruenJUL-AUG 2020 | Critics Page
This conversation between Diana Vishneva, Anna Yudina, and Olivier Berggruen explores the evolution of dance, seen from the perspective of an “art form in the making,” to use William Forsythe’s memorable formulation.
We Will Dance Again: The Dance Community Responds Part 1
By Katy DammersJUNE 2020 | Dance
Nearly three months after theaters began to close, we don’t seem any closer to “returning to normal” and instead face the reality that this crisis will forever change the way we dance and our world. The slow creep of coronavirus has made it difficult to see where we are and chart where we might go next.
