Review
LOUNGEWEAR
Decidedly Jazz Danceworks
Runs until January 18
Max Bell Theatre (CPA)
Despite a catch-phrase promise to "laugh in the face of winter," Decidedly Jazz Danceworks turns in a disappointingly frigid performance with its latest production.
The 20-year-old company’s Loungewear is a satirical nod to the lounge music of yesteryear – the sort of tongue-in-cheek "pizzazz" revue most often tucked away in casinos, hotels and cruise ships.
Nothing wrong with a good ol’ evening of bebop entertainment. As such, the 10-member ensemble grooves to cigar-smoking favourites by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Cole Porter and modern-day hipster Cyrus Chestnut. Using chairs as its physical catalyst, the company pays homage to every Big Band cliché in the book.
Now, tongue-in-cheek or not, any revue is a little long at two hours, and too many cooks do spoil the sauce. Loungewear suffers most from squeezing seven different choreographers into the outfit, showcasing each vignette in excess and leaving the DJD dancers much too rushed in their movements. Depending on dance styles (and there are many), each dancer has a shimmering moment with no time to carry it through to its full potential.
All is not lost, however. Paul Lavigne’s pastel and monochrome costumes are cleverly designed, and Loungewear has a few inventive numbers, including a deconstructed, stylized piece performed with newspapers and Vicki Adams Willis’s lengthy "Sophisticated Ladies Suite," a comical number that rips old Vogue beauty myths to shreds.
Unfortunately, Loungewear’s highlights are few and far between, and are hindered by lengthy transitions, blackouts and Tammy Elliott Hessler’s homogeneous lighting. The revue grows most tiresome in the middle of the first act, when the piano tunes (pure lounge) leave the audience dreaming of elevators and shopping on Stephen Avenue.
Loungewear’s strongest winter laugh is its closing number, performed by dancers seated and wearing various footwear. Its originality is a good model for DJD, a vital company in North America’s jazz-dance scene. DJD’s June production, choreographed by two DJD artists, will hopefully get back into the right swing. |
