April 26, 2004
DANCE REVIEW / LARRY KEIGWIN
Variety Shows
In cabaret there are no "musts." We ask mainly that it be entertaining, and some of us like it offbeat and provocative. Larry Keigwin has his finger on our pulse, and his "Keigwin Kabaret: Channel Surfing" dishes up glamour, sex, music, and dance with kinky Elan. In three very brief appearances (Channel 35), Larissa Velez cheerily shimmies and humps pillars, while the World Famous *BOB* offers a curiously poignant reverse strip. A sweet-faced blonde with ample figure and monumental breasts, she enters naked, then soberly and deliberately gets herself into corselet, panties, and heels, and sits there smiling prettily, letting us watch something far more intimate—the smile slowly fading into sadness.
Comedy Central is represented by the very funny Bradford Scobie. As the lumpily antic Dr. Donut, he coaxes us, shouts at us, and sings to us in various plummily British voices about his planned evil takeover of the world, and lures a spectator up on stage for a clandestine smoke. The Love Boat's theme music introduces Keigwin and Hilary Clark in tennis whites, quickstepping and tumbling with manic glee to open and close the show.
The stunning evolving video patterns projected in Rendered (by Nicole Wolcott with Bruna de Araujo and Andy Personette) outdo TV as they trap and embellish Naoko Kikuchi's dancing body. Keigwin presents some pretty serious work. His Female Portrait #4 features Clark, a substantially built woman who dances this portrait of lonely frustration with a soft, abandoned power. Julian Barnett's Float, performed by the choreographer and Isadora Wolfe, is a stylishly designed and gripping little piece. The two are most often in unison, but there are intimations of collapse and competition in the skewed movement, and wrenching attempts at the end to lip-synch and sing. Keigwin's wonderful Straight Duet, in which he and Wolcott bounce on and off a large mattress in a sensitive vision of conjugal dysfunction (while, ironically, Cecilia Bartoli sings the delirious "O mio sposo"), has been augmented: a solitary solo for him, one for her with the mattress as a comforting wall, and a fine trio (Three Ways) on the bed for Keigwin, Kevin Scarpin, and Jimmy Everett. Keigwin has a gift for creating subtle interactions—acrobatics of body and heart amid the fun.
THE VILLAGE VOICE