Displaying items by tag: Lucky Plush Productions

Rink Life is a dance performance with a difference: these dancers also speak. And sing. And act.

Dance is said to have five elements - body, action, space, time and energy. But creative director Julia Rhoads (she was once part of Red Moon) adds voice as another component to that repertoire.

Over the course of 75 minutes (no intermission) Rink Life features a series of vignettes – perhaps one-act playlets – performed by seven dancers (Kara Brody, Michel Rodriguez Cintra, Melinda Jean Myers, Jacinda Ratcliffe, Rodolfo Sánchez Sarracino, A. Raheim White, Meghann Rose Wilkinson), roughly following the rise and fall in emotional dynamics that might flow through any social group.

The vignettes are interwoven – opening with a duo (Myers and Cintra) rehearsing a pas de deux to Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” that quickly devolves into a discussion between the two of whether Madonna’s line is “for the very first time” or, “for the thirty-first time” as one dancer mistakenly has it. These two are interrupted when two other dancers arrive, announcing they have the space reserved. Then others appear until the full complement of the troupe is on stage.  

While Rink Life uses roller rink culture of the 1970s as a jumping off point, it is only loosely tied to its song playlist from the period.
What would otherwise be hackneyed music choices – Hey Jude, Stayin’ Alive, Total Eclipse of the Heart - are completelyrefreshed here. Rather than threadbare recordings, the dancers voice and interpret the songs, drawing out the beats they need to keep the dances in rhythm. Bethany Clearfield, who has worked with Music of the Baroque, is vocal collaborator and coach. 

Rink Life’s staging and choreography are said to be built from the spatial rules and social codes of a roller rink. Its script or libretto is samplings of those and other songs, and of “passing conversations, distant whispers, pop-song earworms, and found scripts” as Lucky Plush Productions describes it. 

In successive scenes one or another of the dancers isolates themselves from the group, or is ostracized – and we watch the familiar dynamics of rapprochement and resolution. This may all be expressed in very 1970s catch phrases – “I wasn’t feeling it” is a recurring concern as the dancers mount numbers - but the scenes depict fundamental constancies in human social dynamics too.

Each of the performers has a distinct personality on stage and several moments in the spotlight. But Cintra and White stand out, while Melinda Myers reminded me so much of a dancing version of comedienne Kristen Wiig.

Refreshing as an Italian ice, Rink Life brings a continuously unexpected take how people get along in groups. Rink Life runs through November 17 at Steppenwolf Theatre’s cozy 1700 space.

As the house lights dimmed and the actors took to the stage, an odd play began to unfold at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theater. Lights appeared to direct the actors where to go, the actors didn’t act as though they were acting, and perched on my corner aisle seat actresses raced by to leap onto the backs of other actors. I wondered if having that second glass of wine was a good idea. But what was unfolding before me was a beautiful, complex, original, and exquisitely choreographed production of The Better Half presented by Lucky Plush Productions.

The Better Half is a dance-theater spin on the 1944 psychological thriller Gaslight, directed by George Cukor. Launching from this classic film, layers of fiction and reality accumulate, revealing the elusive boundaries between performer and character, actual and scripted relationships, life versus borrowed plot lines. Ultimately a new narrative emerges, capturing the habitual patterns, escapist tendencies, and resilience in contemporary relationships through a complex mix of dance and theater languages.

Rhoads and Danzig approached the staging of The Better Half with a commitment to actual experience. The performers are first and foremost themselves. They are assigned characters. The thriller plot is handed to them. The imposed elements cause the performers to react, and their reactions further the plot. The actual effects on the performers in trafficking between the composed plot and the live circumstances deliver a coherent narrative arc that grapples with fact and illusion, life and art and the way these opposites can get entangled.

The 1700 Theater is Steppenwolf’s newest theater; a casual, intimate and flexible 80-seat space dedicated to showcasing the work of ensemble and emerging local theater companies. With the entrance conveniently located through the bar, it set the mood perfectly for the avant garde production. This surprising, confusing, and intriguing play made for a more unusual theatrical experience than the normal Chicago theater soon. It pairs best with a crisp chardonnay.

On November 10 and 17, take advantage of a discounted Lucky Plush Saturday double feature with a work-in-progress showing of Rink Life at 5 pm, and the signature Lucky Plush work The Better Half at 8 pm. Tickets are available through November 17th and can be purchased at https://www.steppenwolf.org.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a group of washed up superheroes decided to put their powers to use in a new way – a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the world in a slightly less fantastic way? And, what if they were modern dancers? Well so did Julia Rhoads, the artistic director of Lucky Plush Productions (LPP).  Along with her ensemble cast, they combine dance, theater, comic book style video graphics and tons of creativity to tell us the story of seven oddball super heroes, with powers ranging from audio control to lactation, who are working with a marketing company to define the brand and mission statement for their do-gooder non-profit organization. In each of their working sessions, they open with an invocation of the space, go on a training mission and complete individual introductions, each time getting closer to a purpose and forming as a team.

LPP strives to create works that are both dynamic and complex, as well as accessible to a wide audience. Both of those were achieved in this show and despite some slow moments, it was overall an enjoyable twist on a modern dance performance. In all of their works, LPP focuses on experiences that can be shared in the moment between the audience and the performers. In this performance, all of the dancers/actors are mic-ed and as they dance, they also chat with each other or add in the unexpected element of singing, having the effect of bringing the audience into the performance and making it feel more casual – as if they audience were sitting in on the sessions. By breaking down the wall between the performers and the audience, and introducing breaks in the dancing for theatrical moments, it allows the audience to feel more connected to the story and the characters, something often challenging for audience members who are new to the modern dance scene.

The choreography was expressive, moving and energetic. As each character introduces themselves, the choreography style changes to match their personality and super power. All of the styles merged into one representing the strength of the group as they combined forces by the end of the show. The entire ensemble brought vibrant energy to the dancing. The performances of Michel Rodriguez Cintra and Benjamin Holliday Wardell stood out the most. Michel, whose character acquired the powers of the frog after ingesting a frog smoothie, seemed to spring off the floor with powerful and distinctive jumps. Michael is performing in his third season with LPP. Benjamin, a five-season LPP veteran, brought graceful and classical movement to his character inspired by beauty and art. 

The theater element allowed them to make some clear and strong statements about environmentalism, racism, feminism and privilege, and also brought some lightheartedness and humor to the performance as well. As the crew went through session after session, the patterns became a bit repeatable which created moments that dragged due to predictability. On the upside, as they returned for each new session, their costumes evolved into more proper superhero costumes – starting out as basic t-shirts and pants and progressing to full outfits embellished to match their characters. It was a subtle but fun addition to the costuming for the show.

Bringing it all together was the clean and simple set design, comprised of 10 white square panels set up along the back of the stage. The bottom row of panels was on wheels and could be moved to accommodate the needs of the performance. Both live video and pre-arranged graphics were projected onto the screens throughout the show, bringing some excitement to an otherwise simple set. In the scene where we become introduced to Glitch, who has the power to control sound, the combination of perfectly coordinated video projections, sound and movement demonstrated the strong impact that can be achieved with all the elements working together.

Overall, the show was an imaginative combination of dance, theater and video that lowers the barrier for entry to modern dance. The story is clear and easy to follow; the dancing is clean, rich and artistic; the set design and costumes as well integrated into the overall show and it invites the audience in to the journey of the making of Super Strip! 

Trip the Light Fantastic: The Making of Superstrip is being performed at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance. For more information visit www.LuckyPlush.com or www.HarrisTheaterChicago.org.