Le Mauvais Choix, February 12, 2005, Super Happy Fun Land

Le Mauvais Choix is the first independent work created by Aileen Mapes of Suchu Dance. Ms. Mapes is a beautiful dancer with a strong, clean line and good stage presence. We saw a lot of the stage presence in this performance, but not so much of the line. To be fair, she was limited in choreographic freedom by the smallness of the stage area - to give you some idea, the three dancers in the show more than filled it up. This show was what might be called "random;" 30 minutes of vignettes connected by the merest hint of a thread. The other two dancers were described in the program as non-dancers "who [have] decided to make [their] first appearance as a dancer." While Ms. Mapes did an excellent job of finding movement for non-dancers, the other cast members were likely a large factor in why the choreography seemed less than developed. That said, the eclectic nature of the show and the enthusiasm of the audience made for a very entertaining production. Some meaning could be gleaned from the dance where Ms. Mapes, wearing a long, blonde wig, struggled with the "bad choice" of the title: two hairbrushes that both tangled horribly in the wig. In another section, Ms. Mapes moved from pose to pose in front of a sheet showing a shadow puppet manipulated by one of the men, who amusingly brought the puppet back from escape with "the claw." The music shifted genres as well, from classical to children's songs to a song called "Cowboy" and back to classical. A few random thoughts related to the performance: Super Happy Fun Land is indeed super, happy, and fun. And they can help you out with ALL your sock monkey needs. Mr. Silvershoes actually went to this performance with me, a rare occurance. When we got home, we found that the back toilet had been running the whole time we were gone. This seemed fitting in some existential manner. (Not a negative comment!)