I remember walking out of the Quixotic performance at the Uptown Theater last year thinking, "That was the coolest shit I have ever seen." A ballet on acid? A circus from another dimension? I didn't even know how to describe it.
Luckily, the indescribable occurs every year and, this past Friday, June 19, the trippy local troupe that mixes acrobatics, dance and live music unveiled its 2009 creation, Lux Esalare.
Like last year, it's a sensory experience that mirrors a beautiful
nightmare, a barrage of twisted but elegant imagery. Some dance
sequences hint at a bizarre fairy tale. Others feature nearly robotic
women in garrish make-up and costumes that scream S&M. Interspersed
are truly WTF? moments of seemingly super-human strength and grace, as
acrobats dangle from hoops or ropes above the stage.
And the
music? Alternately delicate and drenching, it was, at times, so
engrossing that it was difficult to pay attention to the dancers.
Admittedly,
I didn't leave as awe-struck as 2008. Spencer Theater, on the campus of
the University of Missouri-Kansas City, doesn't have the cavernous feel
that befits such a spectacle.
performance is more grounded in dance than ceiling-dangling. And, yes,
there are moments when the avant-garde fashion calls to mind music
videos from the late 1980s.
Still, it was the coolest shit I've seen, since, well, the last Quixotic performance.
So don't miss the second run of shows this weekend: Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20-30.
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