Sally Rousse

Tonight we went to see Choreographers' Evening at the Walker Art Center. A fun dance event that includes short pieces by a number of upcoming(?) choreographers. Tonight we saw over ten different works, from small ensemble acts including a playfulOrange Episodes by Judith Howeard to the solo performance by Ciudad Juarez's Mexican performance-artist-dancer-choreographer Jaime Carrera whose workMojado, was both poignant and funny.

Orange Episodes includes a stage with an orange background and four dancers wearing dissimilar orange-color outfits. They dance on an (you guessed it) synthetic orange rug. The dancing is fun. At one point only one dancer is left on stage and she proceeds to gather the rug in a frenzy, wanting to keep it all to herself.

In Mojado we see a Mexican with mop and bucket. He rolls the bucket, dunks the mop and proceeds to mop the stage, slowly working on it. On one end of the stage sits a pink tutu. One wonders about this prop and how will it work into the piece. As the worker cleans the stage, he slowly moves towards the tutu until he gets to it. At this point, he drops the mop, puts the tutu on and proceeds to dance to Mexican music. He dances on and on, traditional mexican dances in a pink tutu. The performance does a nice job of displaying the differences and connections of Mexican migrant workers into American Culture.

My favorite piece was Battlecats: Revolution. Choreographers/Dancers Battlecats' B-Boy J-Sun, B-Boy Sequel, and B-Boy Daylight to music by Damian Marley. This trio performed an energetic and highly-skilled work that relied on b-boying dancing