AUDIENCE REVIEW: Jordana Toback on "Tool is Loot"
Company:
Wally Cardona and Jennifer Lacey
Performance Date:
September 22, 2011
Company
Wally Cardona and Jennifer Lacey
Show / Event Name
Tool is Loot
Performance Date
September 22, 2011
Venue / Location
The Kitchen
Your Occupation:
Choreographer
Last time you moved your body:
Last night :-)
Have you ever seen this company/ before?
Tell us a bit about your history with this group/performer?
I have seen Wally's work before not Jennifer Lacy's. But I appreciate them both as performers.
Why did you go to the show? What did you expect to see?
I expected to see what I saw. Cerebral Performance Art. Abstraction. I expected to be challenged. Not entertained.
What was your favorite moment(s)? What inspired you?
The thing that inspired me was the use of time. How long they took with each interval and then after a very specific amount of time had gone by, a new element would be introduced into the space. It felt very intentional and well executed. The dancers didn't come out in actual costumes until the end of the dance, for example. At some point early on in the piece, Ms Lacy tells a chair, "this? oh this is a costume" and I thought, "looks like sweat pants to me". When the costume was finally revealed, I thought that was clever.
Describe as plainly and as specifically as you can what you actually saw. We are going for description without judgement.
There is no need for complete sentences, phrases and word lists are fine. You can describe these elements or anything you can think of: the artists, the kinds of movement, the qualities of the movement, the use of the stage/space, the musicality/timing...
Cerebral Performance art. Abstraction. Everything simplified to the point of almost being nothing there. A film is shown but there is virtually nothing on the canvas, but a white dot set to the sound score of white noise. An exercise in simplicity. Great dancers doing way less then their bodies could do. Holding back the desire to express emotion or beauty or sensuality. Nakedness.
Do any images, colors or feelings pop into your head when you think about this show?
Simple. White. Clean. Tedious at times. Challenging. Clean. Mistakes are included to show how pure they are as artists. Puirty. No recognizeable movement style or vocabulary. Paired down. Meditative.
Describe any or all of these elements: music, lighting, the venue. - How did they contribute (or not) to your enjoyment of this performance?
Lighting didnt do much for me because was so minimal. The sound score was nice- typical for performance art that wants to be naked of emotion. It sounded mechanical, machine like. The voiceovers included mistakes I assume to bring us more into the artists world, their reality. The venue is great and they left everything open and undecorated which set a certain tone for the evening.
Would you like to see this performance / company again? Would you recommend it to a friend?
Why or why not?
I probably would not recommend to anyone who wants to watch something and be tititllated or excited. This seemed to be intended to impress a certain clique of artsits and curators but in playing to that small audience, one misses reaching just about anyone else. They created a piece with a clear but limited viewpoint, with a limited emotional range, and therefore a limited audience. A museum piece. Which certainly has its place but my friends look for something more lush and sensual in a performance so my answer would be no.
What would you like to have seen more of? Less of?
More music, more dancing, more emotion, more love. This piece felt introspective, like a study or a research project and therefore somewhat lacking in passion. Even so, I would like to see more full on, balls out movement, less talking about "exploration".
If you could, what would you ask the choreographer / dancers?
What makes you tick, what makes you excited, what inspires you? Why make this dance? For whom did you make this show? What do you want people to walk away with? Do you know or care who your audience is?
