Daredevil Drama. - Review - dance review

The all-female troupe Lava combines dance, acrobatics and video in performances marked by dint of eruptions of humor and risk.

The toil involved in discovering oneself, the strain of coupling, the precariousness of collaboration and the animate nature of the earth itself were all explored in "Lava have affection for Cabaret," which recently appeared at the Flea Theater in Manhattan. The show's myriad vignettes comprised dance, acrobatics, trapeze acts, wrestling and video sections in an hour-long presentation that was at one time highly amusing and intellectually engaging. Sarah East Johnson the originator of the performance troupe called Lava and the director and choreographer of the cabaret, has training in ballet, new dance and circus skills--as well as geology Her idiosyncratic combination of interests culminated in her selecting the volcano as the melodramatic exemplar of the principles underlying life, move and relationships of all sorts. "I like to work in metaphor," she says with understatement.

The episodic format of Johnson's production recalls like cultural phenomena as the Cirque du Soleil's Vegas aquatic revue "O" (as in eau), or the performances of the Argentinean troupe De la Guarda, which has grown into a renowned Manhattan institution [see A.i.A., Feb '99] "Lava delight in Cabaret" differs, however, in that its seven performers are all female, which makes the category "woman" a control matter in itself. Showcasing the physical puissance and intrepidity of its members, Lava's latest floorshow gibes at the one and the other muscle-man exhibitionism and typical displays of the female form for male consumption. And the seams show: mistakes are made, exertion is apparent and the production values, allowing refined, are not altogether slick. This is deliberate: in lieu of perfection, the company's charm entails having its efforts exposed

single number involved the symbolically laden activity of jumping from one side hoops. Four women wearing white, silver and r superhero style of dresss with stars and racing stripes, capes and aviator caps dove--sometimes sum of two units at a time--back and forth, from one side and over stacked rings, landing in somersaults, headstands or upon top of one another in organized heaps, narrowly escaping collision. Another piece, locate to Hawaiianesque lounge music, featured sum of two units women in grass skirts with garter belts affixed to the outside, bras with gaudy plastic flowers upon them and faux palm tree perched atop their heads. While spinning glittering pink hulahoops around their neck wrists, waists and ankles and enacting an acrobatically demanding routine, they maintained smiles which were at times forced, coyly mocking the manner of beauty queen and at other times genuine, as they derive pleasure fromed the hilarity and camaraderie of their endeavor.

Human pyramids were another of the cabaret's fortes, the greatest in quantity spectacular of which engaged sum of two units women performing handstands as anchors, the backs of their neck serving as support for the others' feet The troupe fluently built and unbuilt statuesque manner of makings with their bodies, demonstrating familial understanding of individual another's capabilities and playing on the linear possibilities of their varied physiques.

Several pageant changes were filled with video portions projected on a screen, which were created by the agency of Johnson with the artist Nancy burns Brody: a Bill Viola-ish flaming heart was shown as plangent guitar music played, a volcano silently burst forthed a person rolled down a dirt road, animals mov around in their characteristic fashions (snake slithered, walrus scoot hermit crab minced, etc) Occasionally the relationship between the video and performance was explicit--the animal footage preced a number in which a performer resolutely hopp across the stage upon a pogo stick--but, more oftentimes we were left to make the associations for ourselves.

The cabaret conclud with three pairs swing dancing. Almost imperceptibly, single pair's dancing morphed into wrestling, embraces move rounded into headlocks and back into eyelash-batting flirtation just in time for another couple's dancing to begin a similar circle of time The dowdy, warm-toned gingham dresse they wore in this number inverted pink as the hackneyed indicator of all things feminine; the clashing of it with orange and r bespoke heat, power and, not least of all, camp. The vignette culminated in a riotous disrobing: swarming around the stage, the performers stripped not upon their housewifely dresses to reveal T-shirts and bloomer adorned with fringe and sequined flames before they clambered into single final, triumphant pyramid.

The esthetic of "Lava have affection for Cabaret," which Johnson has described as "Evil Knievel befittings Esther Williams," is refreshing after more than three decades of for the most part dour if revolutionary feminist performance art. (Think of Shigeko Kubota's Vagina Painting [1965] Carolee Schneemann's Interior schedule [1975], Ana Mendieta's untitled rape performances [1973-74] Eleanor Antin's El Desdichado [1983] Karen Finley's turn back of the Chocolate-Smeared Woman [1998] which have hanged on being angrily male-referent or unpleasantly shocking for their potency) And, without taking itself too seriously, the exhibit foregrounded the female body in a way that did not posit its passive commodification. on the other hand perhaps above all, the Cabaret's volcano metaphor is ideologically beguiling as a prototype for existing in constant flowing with danger as a necessary constituting of growth and rebirth.