I saw Aszure Barton and her company perform last night at Center Stage Theatre as part of Santa Barbara's Summerdance festival. While the entire performance was very good (especially a repeat of Over/Come that we saw last month in the Baryshnikov tour, which was made even better in the smaller box theater of Center Stage where all the intricate detail of the choreography really came to life), the ending duet of Lascilo Perdere was about the most show-stopping thing I have ever seen. I wasn't going to reveal the "trick", but it looks like other reviews already have:

http://www.villagevoice.com/dance/0627, ... 23,14.html

Basically, a man sticks out his tongue, and a woman takes it in her teeth, and they dance an entire pas de deux with his tongue between her teeth. In and of itself, this is pretty disquieting already, but combine it with beautiful, poetic choreography and music (Vivaldi's Nisi Dominus aria), and the juxtaposition of the blatantly sexual with religious and otherwise innocent, otherworldly beauty is pretty mind-blowing. Add to that choreography that pushes this configuration to its limit --- at one point she does a slow backbend to the floor, and he appears to support her with only his tongue --- and you have something that must be the quintessence of theatricality. The beauty of this is that all of this tension and emotion is created by physical movement of the body: the dancers certainly could not emote through their faces.

Wow! You have to see this group for this duet as well as their other very wide-ranging choreography if they come near you.

--Andre

Nancy Phillips reviews a May 2011 Philadelphia performance of Aszure Barton & Artists in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Philadelphia Inquirer