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IMPRESSIONS: Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith in "Prairie Dawn" at Roulette Intermedium
By Catherine Tharin
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Published on November 27, 2024
Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith. Photo: Whitney Brown
WHAT: Prairie Dawn
WHO: Choreography and Performance by Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith | Sound Design by James Lo
Lighting Design by Amanda K. Ringger
WHERE: Roulette Intermedium
WHEN: November 14 - 16, 2024
Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith have been creating notably fierce and provocative duets together since 2006. In their latest dance, Prairie Dawn, at Roulette from November 14th to 16th, they again tackle untouchable subjects pertaining to the female gender. These subjects remain largely unspoken but are understood to be part of every woman’s experience.
Supporting and trusting one another, Lieber and Smith, often nude in their works, unflinchingly challenge society and the viewer’s gaze to mine what society deems troublesome. The vulnerability of nudity allows them to address difficult topics such as objectification, second-class citizenship, sexual abuse trauma, and the control of one’s own body. Like all great comedians, Lieber and Smith sweeten the sting of the message with humor.
Prairie Dawn opens with Molly, barelegged in a white t-shirt tucked into a bright pink thong, staring into a large mirror. Striking a showgirl pose accompanied by All That Jazz from Chicago, the burlesque musical about treachery and crookedness, Molly takes clothes off and on as if playing dress-up. She dons a black boa and tosses sequined underwear from piles of costumes on the stage floor. She twirls a pink umbrella and pounds it on the ground. A chair on rollers, long-corded microphones, a headset, and a curly white wig are also strewn across the stage. Later, hilariously, she tucks the white wig into her thong as if she has grown a profuse bush.
A visibly pregnant Eleanor enters wearing black underwear, a brown sports bra, and a lime green top. In contrast to Molly’s constant action, Eleanor takes her time moving in and out of classic shapes that recall dancers on a Greek vase. The two face one another, and bounce to an aerobic beat. Nude and partially nude, they intertwine. Nudity in their work is as much a costume as clothing.
Struggling to pull a one-piece bathing suit over her white sneakers, a worried Eleanor says, “I’m so late. It’s hard to get dressed when you’re pregnant. I’m just 10 days away.” In a too short bit in this improvised show, Eleanor chews gum and wears the white wig, recounting a story about when she was young and asked her parents if she could see the musical Chicago. They said it was too sexy. “And then I got pregnant. This show is my redemption!” she exclaims. “It’s just all about the internal landscape. Sometimes this wig gets in my mouth.” She tells her Ob-Gyn that despite recommendations to the contrary, she needs her meds.
James Lo, Smith and Lieber’s longtime sound collaborator, unexpectantly enters and plays the snare drum. Seated but alert, he performs as if he could step off the platform and into a marching band.
The laugh-out-loud, rollicking “Prairie Dawn” act is driven by Molly dressed in an askew business suit, but nude beneath. Many consider Prairie Dawn, the first female puppet on Sesame Street, and an innocent, dress-wearing six-year-old, to be a hero. To What Does a Dreaming Dragon Dream Of, Molly alternates in the roles of a sex educator and a mature Prairie Dawn. Their exchange devolves into Prairie describing that she likes to have sex in every orifice, and “that’s not what you said last night when you were banging in my ass.” The sweet Prairie Dawn grows up to have sexual feelings that many would like to suppress.
Eleanor performs a slow-motion solo to Annie Lennox’s ballad of grief, Why, spiraling and rocking back and forth amid the detritus on stage. Eventually, she moves the mirror so that the audience stares at themselves. Molly re-enters and the two float sheer green tunics over their heads. They sit in front of the mirror, apply makeup, and primp. (Makeup replicates the face during orgasm. As a matter of course, women wear makeup but most men do not.) The girl-preening and dress-up suggest the early internalization of misplaced and ingrained societal standards that ultimately are detrimental to all.
With backsliding in women’s rights and misogyny growing widespread, Lieber and Smith’s voices, especially as mothers and mothers-to-be, are now more necessary than ever. Consider the recent post on X by Nick Fuentes, a 26-year-old white supremacist and misogynist, and friend of Donald Trump: “Your body, my choice. Forever.” As two of the dance field’s most outspoken and important artists, Lieber and Smith have hard work ahead.
