Village Voice - Deborah Jowitt
New York Times - Jack Anderson
offoffoffdance - Karinne Keithley
Gretchen, a solo for two women, shows the double-sided nature of a lonely young girl channeling her tantrums into storms. The twins determine the future with tornados and lightning at their fingertips. June revives Persephone as a useful archetype to dispel the romanticization of a "crash and burn" style youthful death (i.e. Marilyn Monroe, Nancy Spungeon). The powers personified in the myth of Persephone, allow her to travel through death as a landscape, and return. Carola Dreidemie's haunting video of a woman endlessly running through a barren environment is interwoven throughout the solo. Victoria is the leader of an endangered planet of fish people. Charged with the weight of leadership as both politician and warrior, in short excerpts we see her mission unfold. Lily revamps the myth of Daphne, a nymph who chased by Apollo, is turned into a laurel tree as a saving grace. Altering the tale to her advantage, the ability to change from girl-to-tree and back again, becomes Lily's superpower. Accompanying her is a virtual tree created by motion graphics artists' Emily Bulfin & Jalal Jemison. And in Alice we see Lewis Carroll's young protagonist as an adolescent action heroine. Interspliced within the body of the dance is MK Guth's wry video I Want To Hold Your Hand detailing an ordinary woman who becomes super-empowered thru difficult cross-training.
A year was devoted to the development of 5 individual solos for superheroic women. In collaboration with sculpturist Jill Odegaard, Goodbye to old things transformed itself into one universe that the 6 women inhabited. The title suggests traveling, moving through time and space. Both individually as well as collectively the women are moving forward - leaving the past behind. The multiple heroines could exist within any woman. Any woman, examined closely enough, could be heroic. Punctuating the structure of the show were video interludes, sometimes layered, sometimes stand-alone, by Carola Dreidemie, MK Guth and motion graphics wizards Emily Bulfin and Jalal Jemison. Plus, a bevy of beautiful performers: Allen, Lyndsey Carr, Amy Cox, Christina Clark, Gina Jacobs and Heather Kravas. See below for a more detailed synopsis of each solo.
Danspace was filled with the stuffed canvas creations of visual artist Jill Odegaard. Hanging quilts, tiny alien sea creatures, reeds and vines, pick-up-stix, lightning bolts and afghans all created a padded environment suggestive of the air, the sea, the woods, your bedroom. Completely fantastical and yet practically functional. Plus, the sound score designed by Allen featured bands and musicians making the most avant rock today: Miss Murgatroid, Zac Love, the Replikants, Deerhoof, Aislers Set, David Weinstein and manmatesmachine (aka Ropstyle).
The creation of Goodbye to old things was made possible, in part, with funds from the Danspace Project's 2003-2004 Commissioning Initiative with support from the Jerome Foundation and was also developed in part through Danspace's 2002-2003 DraftWork series. This work was also created, in part, with a space grant from the BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange with support from the Dance Program of the New York State Council on the Arts. Initial material was developed during The Kitchen's Dance-in-Progress series and parts of the piece were presented in HERE and Dixon Place's FUSE 2003.
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