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| Photo by Paul H. Taylor |
On a scale of 1 to 5. . .
Randy James' "5 Points of Discussion" comes up short on substance.
By QUINN BATSON
Offoffoff.com
Randy James presented an evening of almost at Joyce Soho — almost interesting, almost good, almost sweet and almost appalling, in order of presentation.
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| 5 POINTS OF DISCUSSION |
Choreography by: Randy James.
Dancers: Simon Dekleva, Lawrence Edwards, Kevin Johnson, Lori Beth Katz, Kim Reis, Alison Rose, Kyle Shukis, Missy Pfohl Smith, Sarah Wagner.
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Joyce SoHo
155 Mercer (btw. Houston and Prince)
Opens: June 17, 2004
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The first half, though stronger than the second, showed from the start an addiction to the already-done. Two of the three pieces used Handel and Beethoven music that by now seems impossibly stale, especially when paired with dance, and especially when paired with choreography that is trying nothing new.
"Heaven's Dust" (excerpt) probably came closest to working. Original percussion music by Tigger Benford complemented the movement onstage, and fairly fearless crashes to the floor by Lawrence Edwards and Lori Beth Katz kept the audience on edge, but a fake-fear ending didn't make much sense.
Following intermission, "Five Points of Discussion" mixed chaos, autism, catatonia, sexual violence and incoherent mumbling for an entirely incomprehensible piece that left a bad taste of psychic discomfort, a feeling that had lasted and built for the entire length of the thirty-some-minute piece. Any further discussion in this review would only make matters worse.
Randy James' dancers are competent, and some are probably good, but given awkward, athletic floorwork combined with cloyingly slow movement, they could only put up a good fight in a losing battle. Every piece had decent moments but just didn't make it past the mundane.
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JULY 2, 2004
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
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