A Third-Degree Slow Burn, at Whim W’Him

A Third-Degree Slow Burn, at Whim W’Him

The light seems to drip down planes that are the front and back of Andrew Bartee, at the outset of L’Effleuré. Lighting designer Michael Mazzola catches Bartee from all angles throughout the course of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s dance piece, whether “elastic technician” Bartee is soaring in a leap or sinking to his haunches in a grand plié, pulsing slightly to a rhythm like breathing or heartbeat. Continue reading A Third-Degree Slow Burn, at Whim W’Him

<em>Approaching ecstasy</em> Pours Cavafy’s Poetry into Liquid Bones in Suits

Approaching ecstasy Pours Cavafy’s Poetry into Liquid Bones in Suits

There’s no question that Cavafy is a major poet, but his reputation had to wait until society caught up to him. Though he worked as a nondescript ministry clerk for years, Cavafy made of his poetry a treasure house of the erotic, sensual, visceral–every fleeting thing that shot through the body, he trapped not in amber but in ink, refusing (as Auden later wrote of him) “to pretend that his memories of moments of sensual pleasure are unhappy or spoiled by feelings of guilt.” Continue reading Approaching ecstasy Pours Cavafy’s Poetry into Liquid Bones in Suits

For Whim W’Him’s Olivier Wevers, A New Dance is Life or Death

For Whim W’Him’s Olivier Wevers, A New Dance is Life or Death

No one needs to tell choreographer Olivier Wevers that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. On the same bill with his death penalty dance, thrOwn, this weekend at the Intiman, are two lighter works: la langue de l’amour, a “very naughty” solo for Chalnessa Eames; and Flower Festival, with August Bournonville’s flirtatious, teasing pas de deux, Flower Festival in Genzano, re-imagined for two men who begin the dance in suits, but then there arises a “jousting” feeling, says Wevers, promising very “kinetic” movement. Continue reading For Whim W’Him’s Olivier Wevers, A New Dance is Life or Death