Animal Lost

I've been thinking all week about a very strange dance that I saw at ADF last week. Choreographers Yossi Berg and Oded Graf brought their work, "Animal Lost", to Duke. You can watch a trailer for the dance here (and check out some of their other work, too).
As I was watching the dance, I was wondering how I could find words to describe its mix of the truly weird and interesting and profound and ridiculous. Here are a few excerpts of my attempt:

"Animal Lost," by choreographers Yossi Berg and Oded Graf is a strange bird of a dance - and "did I mention zebras, tigers and my lollipops?" The dance begins with this line, within a nonsensical poem recited by a tall, leggy woman who soon dons a horse mask and tells corny horse jokes into a microphone. Complete with a menagerie of animal masks, water guns, pop songs, and remarkable dancing, this bold and bizarre work offers both nonsense and sensuality, ridiculous situations and undeniable truth.

Berg and Graf, collaborators since 2005, have developed an international reputation for creating dances that are provocative and powerful. "Animal Lost," created in 2010, is no exception. It takes risks - and most of them work - as it tackles the loaded subjects of identity and sexuality with humor and a focused intensity.

*****

The partnering is brilliantly odd. As the dancers wrap around and fit into and through each other's bodies, the parts don't fit neatly, though they always find a way to join. They poke and skim and slice and burrow, ricocheting away and then melting into their partner. These couplings are awkward, sometimes almost violent, other times bordering on tender. Their urgency seems infused by a sort of animal desire - raw and blind and confused--but it's hard to say these are sexy duets. It's not pretty, but there is room for a strange beauty in the reality that is revealed about the way they - we - come together.

Read the rest of the review here.