My favorite regular event at DTW is Fresh Tracks, as I have said before.
It's described on the site as:
Created in 1965, Fresh Tracks is Dance Theater Workshop's longest-running series of new dance and performance. Featuring works by emerging choreographers and performance artists selected through open auditions by a panel that includes artists, producers and critics, the six artists selected possess unusual potential and striking imagination.
Fresh Tracks has helped to identify and launch the careers of such well-known choreographers as Bebe Miller, Molissa Fenley, Bill T. Jones, Wendy Perron, David Parsons, Donald Byrd and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, among others.
We went tonight. The performers were Allen Body Group, Felicia Ballos, Jonah Bokaer, Jeremy Laverdure, Daniel Linehan, Yoko Sugimoto and Yuka Kikuchi. We went mostly because we know Felicia Ballos.
For us, the two best performances of the evening were the ones by Daniel Linehan and Felicia. Daniel Linehan's performance, titled Digested Noise, was a solo choreographed by him, with a (mostly) non-verbal sound accompaniment generated by him as well. There were grunts, hums, clicks, and the occasional word or phrase, such as "Go! Stay!" or what seemed to be a reference to an attack. It was dazzling. Watch for that name. He is a young one, having graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle last spring, and I would expect him to go far.
Felicia Ballos's work was titled Fragile Lodging. There was supposed to be a video component by Anna Craycroft, but there were technical difficulties and she performed without it. I don't want to insult anyone, but it felt like a complete work anyway. Her disjointed movements and vague, odd facial expressions (including gum-chewing) had the audience quite enthralled. Her face was so compelling in the performance that I had to remind myself that her body was doing things too and I couldn't only watch her face.
It repeats tomorrow night (Saturday) at 7:30. It's the best $20 you'll spend all weekend.
