Choreographers and dancers have traditionally been the ultimate in multi-taskers, moving various bodies and/or numerous body parts all at once and usually adding a number of other artistic dimensions like music, lighting, scenery and costumes.
Maybe that’s why terpsichoreans have always been congenial and astute collaborators, open to the possibilities that surround them. So there was nothing new to expect when director/choreographer Jeremy Wade’s production of “there is no end to more” (with “more” being the operative word) scattered across the New Hazlett Theater stage last Saturday as part of The Warhol’s Off the Wall series.
Wade had planned text, illustration, movement, video, music and lighting — on the surface not much “more” than what we had already seen in other multidisciplinary performances. The set was an angled cyclorama, a nifty way to reign in the sweeping open space of the Hazlett and, as we were to see, condense the numerous effects. A Snoopy-like doghouse was the only set piece.
“I am moving fast…I am a butterfly.” Solo performer Jared Gradinger began his list of thought-provoking observations and commentary — some witty, some surprising, some oddball, but still a list. Gradinger’s words certainly tickled the fancy and seemed to drive the production. “What if your mom used to be a boy?” “I have to poop.” But after a while it simply became an extension of the sensory bombardment that we experience daily. Parts of it became disposable in our minds.
Still Wade deserves credit for a laser-like deconstruction and reinterpretation of a foreign culture. Tokyo can be called New York on steroids, a volatile jousting between Japanese tradition and Americanisms and even more compressed. Wade’s piece filtered that sensory experience through Japanese-style animation or “anime,” a visual art form using the simplistic lines of cartoon imagery and most noted for its doe-like eyes and bold outlines, and “cute” culture, symbolized by characters like Pokemon. But illustrator Hiroki Otsuka created a fantasy world of such sweet imagination that it almost overwhelmed the other elements.
It was easy to see Wade’s intentions and the vivid contrasts captured the essence of media, anime and “cute” culture that surround the Japanese, and subsequently everyone in this Internet-connected, all-consuming society. But Wade could still have used a few moments that would give pause for reflection and allow the audience to digest his wealth of information.
After all, we do have remotes.
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