'Logotype 01' by Breakbone Dance Co. an evening of dance exile

How to begin to fathom the mind of Atalee Judy, with her band of bone slamming body breaking performers? The audience is spared not a moment of the hour and a half she holds us captive in the darker recesses of her mind. Perhaps one of the more powerful aspects of an evening in the grip of Breakbone's Logotype is that it seems to come from all around us, what we knew all along is presented to us in shockingly familiar waves of violence and disturbing velocity - and yet there seems to be no name for what she does... calling it "dance" just doesn't seem quite right. Performance? I suppose, but even performance art seems to be somehow removed from what this is. No one element, video or dance or sound, seems to outweigh the other, and this balance indicates an evolution towards that which is yet to be named. Judy herself calls her brand of movement "dance exile" but even using the word dance in the phraseology can prove misleading to audiences who come seeking this kind of medium.

Combining her extreme talents in sound and video design, Judy uses the world around her as a serving platter of exorbitant proportions, in many ways flinging up the fringes of society, sometimes playful, sometimes cruel, but with an eye that doesn't flinch from the social-absurd and proves to be an exciting palate of convictions for us to feast upon. Judy is capable of composing a searing score of music that will jolt you, soothe you, and ignite your underworld to come out and play with hers. Although so much of her subject matter can seem heavy there is an element of dare available to us, as if she is challenging us to ride with her on this, let's see what we can discover. Video images coupled with an astonishing array of ersatz movement, simultaneously repetitive and unpredictable, may be startling to some, but it seems to me that she is able to communicate more as opposed to less which is always the danger in these sorts of endeavors, where one's overall view can be easily distracted, as opposed to enhanced. There are definitely moments of distraction, when you'd rather watch the performers, but can't take your eyes off the back wall, and vice versa, but I have to believe that Judy intends this, the editing overall is too masterful and deliberate. The strength in Judy's vision is that she's able to sense somehow what an audience will ingest, without force feeding, or hammer-heading us, teasing us along, wanting us at times to leap into the fray with her cohorts, and at times making members of the audience visibly recoil. In Logotype 01 (the pieces are not performed in order of logotype) two performers writhing in straitjackets fetter away, one of them (Juan Estrada) snapping his jaw back with each jolt of his body, bearing his teeth in an unwittingly menacing way while increasingly disturbing images of them flash above.

Breakbone's valuable collection of edgy performers is a great asset to Judy, they can't help but delve into her conceptual force with every molecule of their being, hurtling through celestial fires one moment, pounding the floor in gas masks the next; it seems that Judy's infectious organisms have pervaded their bodies and converted them into their own missionary of sorts. If an imbalance exists in this performance it is in the use of this terrific company, who are able to lend more than they are asked to give. So often when one sees dance/performance the genesis of the movement is easily spotted. It seems there is a unique forgery of ideology here and Judy will do well to take advantage of this in the future. There is a seamless quality to their existence inside of the whole, two of the performers carry another on and off, later, they light a piece themselves quietly sitting on the floor for the duration.

The images in Logotype are stimulating in a catch-as-catch-can fleeting way, nothing lingers long enough for us to begin to ponder, it seems it is the Breakbone style to grab stimuli full on by the horns and wrestle it to the ground, only to move on again to the next image - we must absorb and assimilate later - the world and its preponderance of imagery is just as ruthless and does not wait for us to catch up or adapt. Judy smartly learns to team up her performers with the images on the wall; in Logotype 04 she pulls pieces of teddy bears apart while behind her an animated cat is being boiled alive by a dog. Later in the visually arresting Logotype 05 the company appears somehow to be broaching a kind of redemption, as bodies crash in the water behind them on the wall, others are held, suspended in gravity-less silhouette in front. Again, this creates a rather intriguing fusion of wall and floor... at times we feel compelled to watch one or the other, at times we just don't care. I can imagine viewers being completely disoriented and unable to make the choice for themselves; a large part of our existence includes choosing what to see and not see.

Perhaps the two of the most fascinating pieces were couched back to back at the end of the first and beginning of the second half. Logotype 02 flaunts a chillingly insidious bar code, and the company clad in prisoner uniform and gas masks. Using their feet and their voice in this percussive and highly evocative segment, we see behind them visions of decay, holocaust, and cattle. The bar code repeats itself, on their bodies, on the wall, and at one point their shadow seems to increase their number as they bear down on a lone suspect who is not allowed to look at who he is. They move in a stroke from oppressor to oppressed, coughing aloud as they stand against a wall, hunched over, their backs to us. In the next piece, Logotype 03, female voices intertwine in what seems to be an ongoing act of mourning. We see a woman prone, or pushing her head up, or her face forward, moving herself through space and behind her there is a disturbingly sterile bathroom, uncomfortably clean and sparkling, interspersed with women, dead, in body bags, decomposing, fragmented, dismembered, faceless and stylistically seductive in a OB/GYN chair, stirruped and ready. Although we sit braced for the attack, Judy never delivers, she only delivers the aftermath. There is no judgment here, although it feels like it is coming any second. Judy (she performs this piece) is an anathema as a woman, vulnerability vs. force, holding onto something she doesn't know how to use, her shadow alone in the sparkling bathroom. The final image here is most potent; kneeling on the floor she continues to rock back and forth while vocalizing in a mournfully wordless song as the screen behind her goes aggressively white.

Finally we end with Logotype 06, emphasizing video images of the universe, we creep through our solar system silently, as angels read in hushed tones from books (feeling very much inspired by Wings of Desire and its angel's objective but ever compassionate take on human life). A digital mass encompasses, reducing us all to a succession of 0's and 1's. We are finally set loose with the winged creatures to observe the chaos/order of space, and to seek out what I don't know, but it seems like there will certainly be an audience waiting to see what it is when Breakbone finds it.