Austinist Dance Review: We Are Normal, Cha Cha Chaaa

Cha Cha Chaaaaaa!

Ever known someone who economizes their words, and yet (or perhaps because of this) frequently spouts beautiful, eloquent gems of truth? We happen to be very close with someone just like that, and here's what he had to say about Yellow Tape Construction Company's latest production: "If it were a spoken language, they'd have a thousand words for play." This is so true that coming up with a written, non-redundant way to describe and review YTCC's dance epic We Are Normal, Cha Cha Chaaa -- using only the ten or so words the English language has for "play" -- has been a challenge. Here's our best shot.

The piece features four dancers (Amanda Butterfield, Lisa Del Rosario, Vidya Ramirez-Wheeler, and Holly Wissmann), an actress (Melissa Rentrop), and a songstress (Cari Palazzolo of the bands Fancy Feast and Belaire). Loosely told, it depicts the tug and tumble of five characters as they play with one another. At first, the dancers seem to be the Other -- creatures, perhaps not even real, who pester and pull on Rentrop. She resists, tries to avoid them, and scoots away to watch. However, as time goes on, she can't help but join in the fun, sometimes willingly, but sometimes only after putting up quite some resistance. All the while, Palazzolo croons pleasantly over a quasi-80's synth pop soundtrack -- music made just right for cavorting, it seems.

And cavort they do. The dancers, at first without Rentrop but later as a group, run, skip, glide, and slide around the space. One of them tries something new, and the others mimic her; occasionally, a dancer will groove on her own, while the rest look on or play quietly in the background. At times, when the performers get close to Palazzolo, she interacts with them while continuing to sing. The piece is almost always moving and changing; there's never a dull moment. The performance venue, Clear Spring Dance Studio, has a row of glass doors lining the exterior wall of the space, and the performers make excellent use of these. They close doors on one another, stand outside to observe a solo performer's work, and towards the end play a particularly fun game of hide & seek. The latter is where the feathers come in.

Ahhh, the feathers. YTCC's press material mentioned a truckload, so we damn well expected just that. When we entered the space, there were a few smallish boxes set here and there. "That's not a truckload," we grumbled. But, without giving anything away, suffice it to say the performance does deliver enough flying feathers to be called... a truckload. And it does so, yet again, playfully. It teases out a few here, a few there...then ultimately more than enough to fill the space with a beautiful, floating snow of white goose feathers.

Cha Cha Chaaa is choreographed by YTCC's Co Artistic Director Amanda Butterfield. As we've mentioned before, our first exposure to her work in I Love My Dead Gay Son: The Musical! was very positive. While we perhaps saw one or two of the same forms at use in Cha Cha Chaaa, the experience was, of course, altogether different. A full-length dance epic gives a choreographer free reign, and Butterfield's work again impressed us. Imaginative, kinetic (not frenetic), and casual, the performers were a pleasure to watch, both individually and as a group. Among many things, we enjoyed Rentrop's metamorphosis from actress to dancer. We also particularly liked the work of Lisa Del Rosario. While all the dancers were excellent, Del Rosario's wide, somewhat mischievous smile was infectious. For us, she personified the work most completely.

Word on the street is that the final two performances are almost sold out. If you're in the mood for about 45 minutes of non-stop play, get your tickets while you still can.

We Are Normal, Cha Cha Chaaa
Friday and Saturday, October 13th & 14th
Clear Spring Studio [map]
8pm
Tickets: $12. Call 466.5221 or email before 5pm day-of-show, or get 'em at the door.

Photo (c) Yee Wong on stock.xchng

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