REVIEW: Thirdbird/BLOOM

by Kat Richter for The Dance Journal

Between dangling breasts, exposed testicles and a seemingly suicidal remote controlled car, there was something for everyone at last night’s premiere of Seen & Heard 4 at the Arts Bank Theatre.  The evening comprised a split bill featuring half a dozen local artists in the first act, grouped together for an exercise in “improvisational inquiry,” and the Hungarian dance collective Bloom! in the second.  The program ran the gamut from quirky to absurd, inspiring irreverent laughter one moment and absolute silence the next.

Matthew Neenan, Hannah de Keijzer and Jorge Cousineau were the first of Thirdbird’s third wheel “blind dates” to take the stage.  What exactly is a third wheel “blind date?”  According to the program notes, it’s an unexpected pairing of dancers and musicians who have no previous history of working together.  In the case of Neenan, de Keijzer and Cousineau the “date” began with a single wire suspended across the stage.  Cousineau plucked while the dancers undulated, chewed on their fingers and circled their hips.  The result was sheer madness; de Keijzer jabbed her fingers at the audience like a child imitating a T-rex while Neenan circled his arms like a helicopter before trying to help Cousineau climb onto the wire that comprised his instrument.  Life changing?  Not quite.  But entertaining?  Absolutely.

Next up were Michael Kiley, Megan Mazarick and Michelle Stortz.  Standing in a single line facing the audience, they couldn’t help but smile as the sound of a flute filled the theater.  Regaining their composure, they began to hum, then chant, then quack to a soundscape that can only be described as light-saber-meets-madrigal.  They kicked themselves in the legs and crossed their wrists and just when it seemed that the work couldn’t get any more bizarre, a remote control car driven by a hot pink action figure zoomed across—and then off— the stage.  I found myself wondering what made this (and the other piece, for that matter) any different from an afternoon at your average loony bin, but then it hit me: this was madness presented within the confines of a proscenium; it was okay to laugh.  (Especially because the dancers were laughing right along with us.)

By the time the second act began, I was hoping for something that would make a little more sense—not a group of Hungarian dancers prancing around the stage like a troop of circus ponies in their birthday suits under the guise of a work called CITY.  But theirs was nudity with a purpose as if to say, “Yes, we’re naked.  Now get over it because we’re going to get serious.”

Slipping back into their clothes, the dancers posed for the audience, copying each other in a clever commentary on the performativity of everyday life.  Together, they swayed from side to side changing directions unexpectedly with a quick crossing of their feet.  One by one, their names were called as if over a loudspeaker and the dancers, Viktória Dányi, Csaba Molnár, Tímea Sebestyén, Moreno Solinas and Igor Urzelai, raised their hands in response.  Eventually the narration changed from names to descriptions: depressive, atheist, homosexual, asthmatic, Spanish, professional, and the dancers mimed each word with greater and greater speed until their poses became another dance.

CITY unfolded as a series of vignettes, each wittier and more clever than the last.  One piece, cheekily introduced as “a dance about global warming and African famine” unfurled—rather unexpectedly— into a profound statement about community identity with Dányi’s nudity serving as a metaphor for the unfair treatment of immigrants, especially those that don’t speak English.  At times, the choreography was brutal and hard to watch but even in its toughest moments, the work was cerebral in an understated and almost pedestrian manner; Bloom! has a long future ahead of itself.

Kat Richter is a freelance writer and teaching artist.  Her work can be found at www.katrichter.com.

0 replies on “REVIEW: Thirdbird/BLOOM”

Get The Latest Updates

Subscribe To Our Weekly Newsletter

JOIN OVER 19,500+ SUBSCRIBERS
Sent out each Sunday with all the latest dance news and updates for the Philadelphia region.

Related Posts