The connection between oral traditions and dance is a sturdy one. Not only is dancing believed to have been a way to transmit myths in ancient times—a kind of mnemonic device that uses the body to preserve epic stories in the mind—but oral transmission is, even today, the principal way newcomers to ballet companies learn centuries-old ballets.
When Trosztmer encounters the machine, he comes unhinged—at the joints, not at the neurons—skating and gliding on his knees. The dance evolves from quadrupedal to bipedal, his strong animal body gradually usurped by a creaky, battle-torn one, dragging itself through the dirt. When a voice of a woman offstage tries to call him back to the present to get him to recite more of the story, he ignores her, and when she confronts him physically, he reacts to the mike like it’s an inoculation and he’s a feral dog at the vet.
Fri-Sat 1/31-2/1, 7:30 PM Storefront Theater Gallery 37 for the Arts 66 E. Randolpheventbrite.com Free
