Art-99; a 99 word review (expanded to 499 words).

Monica Bill Barnes @ 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Festival through March 8, 2009

Barnes knows that movement is identity. Here, a single character is fractured into four parts longing for mutuality. The evening opens with a solo performance characterized by the repetition of truncated lunges, giddy smiling and mild exhibitionism. A lunatic air threatens the joy of comedy. This series of steps and expressions reappears in sequence after sequence, first possessing a duet, then another solo, then a trio and so forth. Throughout the work, the dancers attempt to influence each other's behavior and bring it into line with their own by demonstration, entreaty or physical compulsion. The theme of compliance is pushed through several variations, from dance-offs, to teaching a few steps to people pulled from the audience. These variations are part of an attempt to link up all the parts, all the movement and sequences into a perfectly unified dance. Even the solos seem to occur in the context of synchronization. We learn that the joyous outbursts of one dancer are the pain and consternation of the others. Barnes studies the difference between authentic behavior and doing what you're told. She has the dancers perform the same movements with and without conviction. This simple ploy raises the problem of identity. If a gesture is performed with belief, authentic character is revealed, if not, character is concealed. These are the stakes for a choreographer. The problem is expanded from dance to all behavior by the sequence with the audience. The willingness of the "dancer" to learn not only the steps but the psychological cause underlying them, is rewarded with love. With long closed-eye hugs and assuring words in the ear, Barnes expands the jurisdiction of choreography to just plain hoping people will behave. The coalescing goal of all this persuasion is to get four parts dancing in unison; at many points it's clear that happiness is contingent upon it. Barnes has expanded the range of her facial expressions over the years. Once all anger and vengeance (though there is still plenty of that) she now emits a longing and heartbroken look that is almost too much to bear. The saddest sequence in the show is one where Barnes attempts to influence the movement of Rowlson-Hall. In the first diagonal cross, her efforts are unseen: Barnes dances briskly behind her as she walks away. In a later cross, Barnes follows her as she walks backward to keep a distance. Barnes points at the foot of Rowlson-Hall, catching up, and stopping it with her hand, then, placing her foot on top of it, making explicit the connection between position and identity. By making an issue of physical compliance, Barnes intentionally conflates surface and depth.  At two points dancers refuse to move at all, while another literally carries them to a new place on stage. Barnes deconstructs synchronization and discovers the chemistry for transmittable happiness.