May 22, 2011
Today, Yow Dance blew my mind.
Yow Dance always intrigues me. I’m not a dancer, so to see these women and men sweat and swoon and leap and bruise in the name of art is incredible to me. I love the dancers’ artistry and grace. I love Eric Yow’s creative brain.
But today, Yow Dance did more than intrigue me. It made me laugh. It made me yearn. It made me sad. It made me remember. At this year’s Fringe performance, Yow Dance’s show, Attention Please: Nostalgic Dance Theatre through ’80s TV Land, made me excited in a very different way than it has before.
Some of the movements were familiar — the hand swoop, the covered mouth, the creative ways of falling, the running on stage — and the elegance that I’ve seen in other performances was still there. But the music and the costumes and the choreography were (almost) completely new for this dance company.
If you think you’ve seen Yow Dance perform before and therefore you can miss this Fringe performance, I urge you to think again. If your partner doesn’t like dance and needs convincing to come, tell him or her to attend for the music alone. Your companion will leave with an appreciation for the dance form.
And be sure to sit close to the stage like I did so you don’t miss the human sounds of the show, as the dancers stomp, clap, smack and — occasionally — hiss.
Common themes of Yow Dance performances and choreography are those attacking conformity, challenging conventional beauty and discovering sexuality. They’re all here in this show, using 1980s pop culture as a tool for telling those stories. I also saw emotional turmoil, loneliness, confusion and an awakening on the stage.
It was beautiful.
And meanwhile, the guy next to me was humming along because he knew all the songs. You’ll know them too, and you’ll hum with the music while Yow Dance breathes life into it.
A child of the ’80s,
Tyler Reed
Yow Dance 