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Emily reviews Jonah Bokaer


A metal gate with rhythmic banging produced by Bokaer falling into it was the night's hooking "False Start". This energetic and intriguing piece bridged the way between human dance, and Bokaer's work with image capture technology.

After that opening banging in the middle of the piece the gate is raised to reveal a screen where a multi-colored image of a body produces a movement that Bokaer then recreates on stage. It was quite surreal actually, the movement when you first see it appears difficult or inhuman, but after getting acclimated to it for a while it becomes natural and more fluid. They are connected gestures broken up, he stops when every muscle contracts or tenses up as if it were a slide show of freeze frames, or a flip book moving a bit too slowly.

The final piece "The Invention of Minus One" featured more of the same movement from Bokaer's solo piece. The main attraction here was the set, it looked like a photography studio equipped with tripods, light banks, video cameras, 2 small screens, and a wall of umbrellas acting as the main screen. The umbrella's created a distorted pattern for the images of the motion capture projected onto it. The dancer's costumes done by Isaac Mizarhi created a fairy tale aspect to the environment. One looked like Cinderella, another like a Coachman and the 2nd woman seemed like a mix of the two. A high point of the piece included the women holding glowing umbrellas making them look like jelly fish on the stage. They mostly used props of frames, shades, video cameras, and even Polaroid cameras. The movement was woven into the technology, which made the lack of dancing less of a problem and more of an asset.