Devil or Angel? Performance Art
Performance Arts Center, Van Nuys; Van Nuys Recreation Center
by Stephen R. Wolcott
Angel
The Performance Arts Center, situated in a seedy industrial center deep in the bowels of Van Nuys, doesn’t appear like the proper setting for a dance concert. But on this particular drizzly Saturday night the place was packed and people were being turned away at the door. Entering a dance hall crowded with chic patrons, I strolled across a hardwood floor streaked with enough black scuff marks to fill a Jackson Pollock painting. I would find out later that this was a result of some serious rehearsal time, thanks to choreographer and dance instructor Doug Caldwell. His program, entitled “Love is All That Matters,” was conceived to raise money for Project Angel Food, which provides services to AIDS patients.
Instead of whipping up a few simple showpieces to please the paying customers, Caldwell delivered a socially conscious and highly expressive evening of dance theater built around such themes as sensuality, laughter, spirituality, and the loss of loved ones. This wasn’t just a display of technique. Drawing inspiration from the likes of Bob Fosse and Alvin Ailey, Caldwell fused jazz, ballet, and modern dance styles into what he calls “emotional storytelling.” When a passionate young girl leaps into her lover’s arms, both twirl in a gut-level act of romantic innocence. A scantily clad temptress in stiletto heels lip-syncs to Eartha Kitt’s “I Want to be Evil.” A devout group treads softly with candles, honoring their commitment to a mysterious God. Men raise angry fists over social injustices. Women pound their feet in heartbreak and defiance. And in perhaps the most stirring piece of the night, Caldwell himself pours his heart out to a young, wide-eyed child with seamless sincerity, to the tune of “If I Could.” Lots of folks who donate their energy to a worthy cause often pound you over the head with a message. Thankfully, Caldwell combined subtle ideas with something exciting to watch. Additional productions of “Love is All That Matters” are being prepared for performances in August.
Devil
I always thought I had to trek out to Santa Monica or downtown Los Angeles to watch the more off-beat, experimental performances. Not so. I just had to drive to Van Nuys Recreation Center, where the Collage Dance Theater was busy conjuring up demonic images in an empty swimming pool. This site-specific group loves to present their work in unorthodox venues such as Laundromats, empty gas stations, and baseball diamonds. Their latest effort, “Life in the Lap Lane,” is part of a series called “Urban Extinction,” which focuses on vanishing social landmarks. Heidi Duckler, the head of Collage Dance Theater, feels that the deterioration of this 40-year-old pool is evidence of the environmental changes taking place around us.
Her hour-long program was developed through stream-of-consciousness experimentation and toying with such familiar aquatic metaphors as “Going off the deep end,” “Shallow people,” “Taking the plunge,” and “That awful sinking feeling.” “It’s hard to keep your head above water,” Heidi admits, referring to her dependency on matching grants, which allow her to present her collaborative works and earn a living at the same time.
Not only an evening of dance, “Lap Lane” combined live musicians, synthesized studio samplings, slide projections, and an opera singer’s haunting aria amid an inferno of blazing tiki torches. As the evening progressed, the empty pool served as a backdrop for many disturbing images: the deep end sucked unwilling victims into a hellish no man’s land; the black swimming lanes became a Dali-esque landscape for an “Obsession” ad for zombies; slides of Satanic commercialism flashed before the audience (ranging from a Dirt Devil vacuum to Hormel’s Red Hot Chili); a woman in a red dress laughed madly while gnawing savagely on a fleshy chunk of meat; hula dancers swung their hips to macabre dirges.
In July, Collage Dance Theater will present a new piece involving women and appliances at Cal State Los Angeles. And stay tuned for a production to be staged in the L.A. River basin. ♦