DANCE REVIEW : THE SILLY SATIRE OF COLLAGE THEATER’S ‘CHAOS’

High production values and simplistic satire characterized Heidi Duckler and Bonnie Lavin’s “Chaos: Something Normally Present,” offered Saturday by Collage Dance Theater at the Downtown Dance Studio.

Employing slinky costumes, wildly oversize props, colorful slide projections and some striking original music, this 50-minute dance drama traced the imposition of mechanical regimentation upon an original state of free-flowing, playful chaos.

All the evil was symbolized by, believe it or not, the golden arches of McDonald’s restaurants.

Duckler and Lavin even emerged from a huge Styrofoam hamburger package like space invaders to force free-spirited chaos figures--Debi Albeyta, Anne Goodman, Cynthia Hord, Mary Vanderbur and Sharon Wilson--into marching by the numbers and churning out fast food.

While this was mildly diverting, things took a decidedly dreary turn with a spoof of--guess what?--TV game shows. Fortunately, chaos had its revenge and the evil figures enacted by Duckler and Lavin were swallowed up, amoeba-like, in a group cluster pattern.

But all this was an incredible waste of talent. Duckler and Lavin were strong dramatic presences and the company danced with real skill. Composer Ken Butler contributed eerily effective live music. To devote it all to such meager, silly material was a poor joke in itself.