The Chase Brock Experience

The Connelly Theater sits inside an old orphanage from the 19th Century at 220 East 4th Street. The place looks like a miniature opera house because of its decoration and layout, but it was originally a kind of multipurpose hall with a stage at one end and a flat gymnasium floor. A flat second level balcony area might have served as a place for additional meetings or for the set up of tables as patrons looked down on the proceedings of a community dance with a band performing on stage. Certainly the space has served numerous purposes, but the architect did put a stage in and a beautifully ornate proscenium arch and so more than anything it is a theater. Later the orphanage became a girl’s school and is that today, with the Connelly Theater being used both for the school and rented out to arts groups. After being dark for ten years the theater was fixed up with air conditioning, a rudimentary black and gray paint job, the installation of raised seating units, made safe again and opened in 1997 to serve as a very nice arts venue full of character. Young choreographer Chase Brock loved the space and thought up two dances to fit especially onto the smallish stage, danced by the company of his Chase Brock Experience.

The fun first piece of about 30 minutes in length was “Whoa, Nellie!” danced to the songs of Nellie McKay. The colorful set and costumes by Dane Laffrey suggested a carnival atmosphere, but there was no story here, just a wild and humorous interpretation of the music. Strangely the sense of circus turned into comic horror when the piece ended in a depiction of zombies. Irreverence was the order of the production. Mr. Brock uses unusually shaped dancers––they come shorter and stockier than your typical ballet dancer, but they are both powerful and graceful and it is nice to see a different type represented in the dance world. Each of the seven dancers were given the spotlight to display their individuality and worked beautifully as an ensemble. They were Dean de Luna, Ashley Eichbauer, Erica Furst, Drew Heflin, Yukiko Kashiki, Micki Weiner and Michael Wright.

More satisfying, perhaps because it was more intellectual and had something of a story to it, was a dance of psychological investigation called “Mirror, Mirror.” This was danced to an original score by Michael John LaChiusa and played by the sensitive fingers of Jamie Schmidt on a baby grand piano. Connor Kilian Weigand danced a character called “Narcissus” in the program. He went through a series of dances depicting the removal and replacement of garments. For some reason his pajama bottoms were removed and thrown in the trash, then he put on a pair of pants and a sweatshirt, then removed them. He considered himself in the mirror, he anguished over what he saw, yearned for something, and was sorrowful of some event. All this was danced and as simple as it sounds it was rather fascinating and then the lights blacked out. Lights up and we are on the other side of the long mirrored space. There is another character, danced by Drew Heflin, “The Observer,” on the other side of the mirror watching “Narcissus” go through his routine again. Is he the alter ego? Is he the neighbor? We don’t know, but sometimes he mimics “Narcissus” and sometimes he dances for himself as a kind of response to what he observes, but there is also a yearning there. Black out. The lights come up and this time a girl is involved–– “Object d’Amour,” danced by Yukiko Kashiki shows “Narcissus” making love to this girl while the “Observer” looks on (for isn’t a pas de deux always representative of sex?). One more scene comes and the “Observer” crosses through the mirror and dances a pas de deux with “Narcissus.” The two end quietly in each other’s arms and the “Object d’Amour” is nowhere to be seen.

Only Mr. Brock can tell us what this all means, but it is an interesting wrestling with desire and a search for self-discovery. “Mirror, Mirror” was beautifully danced and intriguing as it unfolded and should be the pride of the company to be revived in future programs. I hope that if the day comes that the Chase Brock Experience finds itself playing upon the City Center stage between seasons of Alvin Ailey and Paul Taylor, that “Mirror, Mirror” will be in the program. Mr. Brock has a unique voice in the New York dance scene and I hope the company blossoms and can be received in larger venues where many more people will take the opportunity to see and delight in his work.

On the critical side, the overall presentation could have gone much smoother. The house opened nearly at curtain time and the show started 15 minutes late. The coordination of the technical elements was shaky and the overly long intermission displayed two sorry stagehands working in an archaic manner to change the simple set between programs. The evening went on one half hour longer than it needed to and it diminished the overall enjoyment of the evening that the front of house activities were not as polished as the dances themselves.