The New York Times
July 31st, 2006
by Jennifer Dunning
Keith A. Thompson danced with Trisha Brown for nine years, and there was something of her whim-of-the-wind loose-bodiedness and spring to the pieces Mr. Thompson’s danceTactics Performance Group presented at Dance Theater Workshop on Friday night. But what made the program so exhilarating was the choreography’s simplicity and directness. This was an evening of dance that lived up to the promise of its title, “Without Pretense.”
Created in the last two years, the six pieces suggested in their range of moods and themes that Mr. Thompson was laying out a variety of choreographic impulses. But the dances had a similar authority, in both style and emotional tone, perhaps in part because of the certainty of his engagingly individual dancers, who looked so thoroughly at home in each of the pieces.
“JumpCut,” a male quartet to music by Robert Een, was an easy-moving introduction to Mr. Thompson’s choreographic world. “Razor Principle,” also for four men, added a slightly erotic tinge to the airy mix.
“Merge,” a dance for two women and two men performed to music by N. B. Aldrich, opened out that world into a darker, more spacious realm. And “Vignettes: A History of …,” a group dance performed to Pergolesi, introduced a signature move in Mr. Thompson’s choreography in which bodies fold supplely in on themselves.
Mr. Thompson proved equally adept at overt drama and comedy. His “Remembering Your Paradoxical Whisper,” to music by Mr. Aldrich based on compositions by Ryuichi Sakamoto, was a nuanced, well-plotted exploration of urgent emotional divides between an individual, danced by the eloquent Sara Roer, and four others.
“Big Love,” danced to Etta James, Otis Redding, Mozart, Handel and Ernesto Lecuona, was a big, hilarious mess of a pajama party without a single wasted bit of silliness. Nicole Pope stood out for her bossy, goofy performing in a full-company cast that also included Robbie Cook, Gabriel Forestieri, Megan Mazarick, Jennifer Morley, Daniel Puneky, Ms. Roer, Ben Wegman, Daniel Zook and the lithe Billy Smith. Katrina Mauer designed the evening’s scene-setting lighting.