The Washington Post 07 de FEBRUARY de 2001
The Washington Post
Washington, EUA
07/FEBRUARY/2001
By Sarah Kaufman
MAKING THE LEAP FROM EVERYDAY TO EXTRAORDINARY
As the saying goes, if only you could lift the roofs off ordinary houses, you’d see stranger sights than you could ever imagine. In "Casa," Brazilian choreographer Deborah Colker has lifted off not only the roof but also most of the walls of the two-story house that dominated the Eisenhower Theater stage last night at the Kennedy Center. And, oh my, what sights we saw.
Fifteen of the most handsome, well-drilled and gym-disciplined performers you could ever hope to lay eyes on were taking showers, making eggs, making love, slugging it out, making up, jumping a dozen feet to the floor. . . . You know, ho-hum, banal stuff.
After a career in beach volleyball, Colker formed her Companhia de Danca Deborah Colker in 1994; now it’s considered one of Brazil’s most popular contemporary dance groups. Sheer athletic guts power much of "Casa," making its U.S. premiere last night as part of the Kennedy Center’s AmericArtes festival, but it has enough visual inventiveness and wit to make it more than just an hour-long aerobics routine.
At first you’re simply captivated by the swift, sure changes that happen in a blink: One dancer arcs over her partner’s back, then she’s on his shoulder, then he’s jumped lightly through the circle of her arms. Others launch into back handsprings, or handstands on each other’s shoulders.
Soon the house structure itself comes into play — two (and sometimes three) levels of wooden platforms, with several moving panels and doors that expand or confine the space. There’s no easy way up, down, on or off this thing. The dancers scale its heights on narrow ladders, shimmy down firehouse poles, flip off its platforms or belly-flop from one level to the next, landing in the arms of their colleagues.
At times "Casa" seems overly impressed with its own cleverness, but just when you think you’ve seen every move the dancers have in them, they surprise you. In the final astonishing moments, one man grabs hold of a drawbridge-like platform just as it begins to rise. He lets go with one hand, swivels around and waves to his buddies below, continues holding on with one hand as the contraption lifts him, oh, 20 feet above the stage. He puts the other hand back up just as the lights dim and he’s brought to the top.
Colker says her work is a paean to the ordinary, and she sends her dancers through the motions of the average day. Some of it is artfully stylized, as when a group turns the gestures of cracking eggs, whisking, pouring and frying into a harmonious ballet (performed to strings). Some of it is surprisingly real, as when one woman in a filmy red dress steps into what looks like a cascade of silvery glitter. It turns out to be falling water, and she stands under it, drenching herself, for several wonderful moments.
The soundtrack, credited to Berna Ceppas, Alexandre Kassin and Sergio Mekler, is as essential as the doors and hinges in creating this house. It warps freely from contemplative blips to congested womps, high shrieks and rolling burbles. There’s even a bit of the rain forest thrown in.
Throughout "Casa," Colker toys with notions of shelter — the walls and floors can protect as well as trap — and also ideas about up and down. But she shies away from getting too close to the nerve — once she has set her bodies in motion, she doesn’t examine their actions, so the piece doesn’t go beyond the surface. When one woman slams a door shut in a man’s face, then throws it open with the same brusque harshness, we’re not privy to her reasons. The dancers maintain their somewhat manic, driven air throughout the evening, whether they’re playing or tussling.
Do we learn anything about our essential natures? No, but we can certainly recognize parts of ourselves as the performers go about their business. And marvel at the way they do it.
The performance repeats tonight; the company performs "Rota," with a two-story hamster wheel, Saturday and Sunday.
