Anticipation was certainly in the air before the Saturday evening performance of The Invention of Minus One, all the way downtown at the Abrons Arts Center. Eager fans mingled in the theater's small lobby, speculating about Jonah Bokaer's newest work. "Can you believe he's only 26!," one Bokaer connoisseur exclaimed.

Owing to the performance's sophisticated technological enhancements, one must choose his/her seat wisely, as the interpretation of the show is contingent on this factor. The program opens with False Start, a solo piece full of spiraling motions and the rhythmic clanging of Bokaer slamming against a metal sheet, similar to the security gates found in front of small businesses when they are closed. Once the solo wound down, a digital animation accompanied by clamoring bangs and screeches projected what seemed to be a robot-like version of the piece.

The second and more elaborate piece, The Invention of Minus One, was complex in all senses of the word. Three characters (a matador, "futuristic girl" and army captain), looking as though they had been pulled out of different dimensions, completed a long rotation of carefully placed steps to music resembling the fuzzy drone of white noise. What was interesting were all of the unexplained props: umbrellas, cameras, costumes, racks, etc, which left the dance open to interpretation. The characters ressembled models at a shoot, posing in front of the cameras and sorting through/moving the racks of clothes. The image of a meeting of a bunch of different comic book characters also came to mind. Somehow, I think whatever Mr. Bokaer had in mind had some particular meaning, whether literal or metaphorical, though it simply wasn't quite clear as to what it was.

Nifty graphics also accompanied The Invention..., projected on three screens (one in the center and one on each side of the stage), making the animation visible and comprehensible to all viewers. Although they detracted from the dancing, the concepts were interesting; various cookie-cutter-like shapes of the dancers tumbled onto the screen in different patterns and speeds, perfectly in sync with the rhythm of the live dancing on stage.

Overall, it was an evening to celebrate multimedia in the dance world. However, it's up to you to determine whether you went to the movies or to the show.