In the post-performance artist talk-back after Kokoro Dance's "Love, Sex, and Death" performance, choreographer Barbara Bourget spoke of fusing butoh and flamenco. This idea is visible in the movements of the dancers who combined butoh-style articulated, slow-movements with flexed feet and rounded arms, with the fierce foot-stamping and proud motions of flamenco. They were accompanied by a sound track of luminous, emotional trumpet, sparse piano, intricate guitar, and rich lines of melody carried by the cello.
Mascall Dance's "White Spider" is easily one of the most out-there performance experiences that I have had this year. The stage was equipped with a large revolving disk that was tilted on an angle and moved by a pneumatic lift. Climbing ropes hung from the ceiling, and on the back wall there was a contraption that looked like the ungainly offspring of a lightening rod and a basketball net (it turned out to be a dance/drawing machine). In the second act, a three-sided ladder-like structure was also wheeled onstage for dancers to climb and tumble on.
