Latest news with #ShowPony
Chicago Tribune
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: BOOM CRACK! Dance's ‘Bruta' finds the potent potential of hip hop
BOOM CRACK! Dance Company has not gotten the credit it deserves. To be sure, artistic director Trae Turner has made elegant strides in sending his distinct style — a blend of urban contemporary and commercial street dance — to the concert dance stage, and that's garnered some high-profile appearances at festivals in Chicago and beyond over the company's 16-year history. But BOOM CRACK!'s latest full-length evening, titled 'Bruta' and running two days at Edgewater's Edge Theater on Broadway, seems to subversively say something about the dance field's historic dismissiveness toward the creative capacity of hip hop, without making the project a dull intellectual exercise. On the contrary, 'Bruta' has everything we've come to know and love about this company: it's tightly composed, earthy and hard-hitting, with the right amount of sultry sauciness. And in 11 short pieces spread across three brief acts, the evening implies a narrative arc about breaking free. From what, I'm not totally sure. But I'm here for it. A prelude by soloist Abdiel Figueroa Reyes opens the evening, the former Hubbard Street dancer confined to a ruddy, lumpy ring at the center of the Edge's petite stage. Reyes writhes and contorts in what, given his history, struck me as the stripped-down, primordial shadow of Kyle Abraham's 'Show Pony.' Or maybe not. But throughout the evening, choreographers Turner and Krista Ellensohn (plus a spectacular second-act trio by company member Alexa Kruchten set to Michael Jackson's 'Dirty Diana') take the audience on a somewhat similar journey, oscillating between dark and light, guttural and ethereal, feral and ferocious. Those contrasts are most evident in how Turner and Ellensohn divided the performance, with the first act leaning far more heavily on lyrical and contemporary vocabulary outside this company's comfort zone. Guest performers Reyes, Sophia Cozzi, Emma Miquelon and Ella Querry do the heavy lifting on that front, lending an ooey-gooey aesthetic that evolves to meet the moment as the music and dance veers more toward hip hop. But that Middle-earth feel laid down at the beginning returns at the top of Act 3, with BOOM CRACK! dancers Ellensohn, Krutchen and Sophia Santore confined to rings of their own, impatiently pacing within their self-imposed borders. It doesn't last. Santore bursts onstage for an electrifying solo leading into 'Bruta's' rather joy-filled finale, the cast donning baggy fatigues and personalized 'Bruta' T-shirts. BOOM CRACK!'s full-length productions are few and far between, produced at a rate of less than once every other year. Thus 'Bruta' feels special, and The Edge Theater is perhaps a too-small venue for what it is trying to do and say — in some moments literally. Music, arranged by Turner, ranges from cinematic schmaltz to dubstep to the aforementioned 'Dirty Diana.' One track, featuring the largest cast of the night, with 11 dancers on that tiny stage, says 'I can do anything' on repeat. Another: 'I want that recipe,' a line parroted by an audience advised in Ellensohn's curtain speech to express themselves — which they thankfully did at Thursday's preview. The space is well-appointed enough for lighting designer Michael Gobel to find some striking looks, and smartly used, even in 'Bruta's' more crowded moments. Immersive, booming bass from a great sound system is felt right down to your bones. But with short snippets separated by needed pauses for costume changes, plus two intermissions, 'Bruta' feels like a bit of a tease, serving us peaks and valleys rather than a steady build of momentum — a most delectable tapas, but not quite enough food on the plate to send the table away feeling 'Bruta' (3 stars) When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday Where: BOOM CRACK! Dance Company at The Edge Theater, 5451 N. Broadway Running time: 70 minutes with 2 intermissions Tickets: $30 at
The Guardian
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Embodying the Impossible review – beguiling tricks of the magic trade
Throwing shapes is expected at this dance space but throwing voices? That's one of the connections between two pieces presented by the network Aerowaves. In Iterations, performance artist and magician Tom Cassani finds himself interrogated mid-show by his makeshift, goggle-eyed hand puppet ('Where's it all going?'); while in W̶e̶l̶come, Compagnie Les Vagues' ventriloquist trio hold poker faces as they greet us, name by name. It's a clever, beguiling, lightly humorous and occasionally maddening double bill devoted to manipulation. Both acts vocalise our predicted responses and directly comment on – even dismantle – their performances. Ambling on in a black boiler suit, Cassani has a coin trick to show us, again and again. It will be different each time, he says, 'believe me' – although disbelief rises with each minute. Who hasn't, after watching such a trick, been convinced they could catch out the magician if they could just watch again? No dice. Cassani toys with us, replaying his mystifying act with variations, even standing right among the audience. Iterations has a similar approach to Show Pony, in which German company Still Hungry take the razzmatazz out of circus tricks and also convey the repetitive toil that goes into learning an act. Cassani asks what makes the routine different when he does it with flashy music and a grandiose air, or if he were to perform it on the street instead of a stage, or in the manner of a contemporary dancer (cue loosened hips and knees to the floor). What if he tricked us while thinking about his grandfather? That iteration and a – tall? – tale about swallowing a coin are teasing suggestions of a more personal hour, but Cassani gives away little of himself as he explains the techniques of prestidigitation. After a leisurely start, the show takes hold in an intimate moment when he reveals the callus on his hand that results from, and now enables, a specific trick. A touch more autobiography would leaven these scholarly assessments of effect and method, and his inquiry into the balance of power between performer and audience. Cassani certainly trains the eye for W̶e̶l̶come, an uncanny dance-theatre piece from France that majors in minuscule movement then climaxes with a thrumming tangle of itching and tickling. Choreographed and performed by Joachim Maudet with Sophie Lèbre and Pauline Bigot, it begins in freeze frame, their eyes wide. What unfolds is as much about how the trio sees us as how we see them; sometimes the perspective is ambiguous. 'They are all so elegant,' purrs one, peering into the audience, yet they're the ones in matching yellow polo necks. They dabble in mind-reading, anticipating our reactions like Cassani, in a piece that is intriguing yet similarly takes its own sweet time. In the first half of W̶e̶l̶come, the bodies of these occasionally yodelling ventriloquists move almost as imperceptibly as their lips. The key movement here is in the tongue and diaphragm; the piece trains your attention on the internal rather than external and plays with that contrast on several levels. There's an air of mock wildlife documentary as the trio act out delight in a creature's cuteness and distaste in its bodily functions. But it's pleasingly daffy, too, even as it conjures muddled scenarios of hostility and the search for safety. Those lips are eventually liberated and the trio's tongues waggle to rampant percussion. They hazard a guess at befuddled critical reactions, concluding 'there were interesting things along the way' rather than a grand adventure. It sounds like a deathbed reflection. Iterations tours Europe until 5 April. W̶e̶l̶come tours Europe until 17 May.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ted Lasso star confirms 'warm up show' in Watford
An ex-Taskmaster contestant and TV comedy star is set to perform a warm-up show in Watford ahead of a national tour. Tickets to see Nick Mohammed perform a work-in-progress version of Show Pony at Watford Palace Theatre have gone on sale today (February 5) ahead of the preview performance on April 1. Readers may recognise him as Nate from Apple TV comedy drama series Ted Lasso, but he will be performing as his Mr. Swallow alter-ego which has featured on TV in multiple episodes of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and the 2024 Bafta ceremony. Ssh, I'm doing some work-in-progress shows of Show Pony over these next couple of months! Dates below and all 🎟️ available via — Nick Mohammed (@nickmohammed) February 5, 2025The show description states: 'Show Pony has been described by Mr. Swallow as 'payback for everyone who didn't come to the last tour' and will cover everything from not having his own sitcom to not having his own sitcom… and everything in between (critical race theory). 'As per - expect magic, music and a whole load of brand new mistakes.' The 2 hour 10 minute show (including the interval) starts at 7.30pm and standard tickets cost £18. It is suitable for audiences aged 14 and over. Nick Mohammed. (Image: PA)
