Company: Candy Jimenez / Dulce Dance Company
Choreographer: Candy Jimenez
Performer: Jeremiah Jenkins
in a talk-back session after this performance, choreographer Candy Jimenez said that this piece, danced by Jeremiah Jenkins, was meant to characterize the process of re-centering and cleansing the chakras after a long hard day. My (unspoken) reaction was: Seriously? You watched him perform this piece and you’re still going with THAT?
The piece starts off with a little slice of life scenario – a young man in business attire carrying a briefcase, sets it down and starts to take off his jacket and tie. To the amusement and/or amazement of the audience, he doesn’t stop there but proceeds to strip down to his tighty-whiteys (with some vocal audience approval). He then wanders over to a mattress on the floor, the only prop on stage, and sits on the edge looking despondent.
Reading his emotional energy, I detected a sadness that became more pervasive as he began to twist his body into a series of contortions. I retained that impression as this sadness seemed to progressively morph into grief and then what I registered as frustration or despair – flailing savagely, helplessly at the world and repeatedly throwing himself onto and across the mattress.
In deference to what I later understood to be the theme, but which was very mysterious at the time, Jenkins momentarily paused a couple times to rub his tummy (presumably the location of a chakra) and then reverted to tearing up the stage. All this free-form madness resulted in an unfortunate false ending. When he momentarily laid prone and still on the floor, the audience rightly assumed, with the cessation of all that energy, that this was the end and started to applaud – only to have him get up, start collecting sheets that had been tossed about, and then collapse on the bed. It was very anti-climactic, but the audience was so enthusiastic about his performance that they were willing to overlook it and resumed applauding appreciatively.
Having this performance be about adjusting your chakras at the end of a long day is roughly equivalent to returning from a long drive in your car and deciding that the best way to check the oil, the tire pressure and the fluids would be to tear the car apart with reckless abandon. Whatever the intended motivation, Jenkins gave himself over to a free-form ferocity that amazed and delighted the audience. I can say with some certainty that he spared no chakras in the process.
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