Dance, Music Reviews : Houston-Jones, Meier at Sushi

Dances by Yvonne Meier and Ishmael Houston-Jones, which opened the Danse Fraiche series at Sushi Performance and Visual Art on Thursday, were risk-taking and courageous.

“Tell Me,” a collaboration by the two New York artists, was the largest work in the program. An electrifying 35-minute endurance contest, it began with Meier and Houston-Jones staking out distinct territories, even taking turns on stage.

Although they danced separately, each continually maintained awareness of the other. When they at last made contact, the effect was explosive.

To a suite of songs by 3 Teens Kill 4--No Motive, Meier and Houston-Jones collapsed together, reached for each other, moved apart. With the timing of a basketball player executing a perfect no-look pass, she leaped at him and he caught her.

Remarkably, the dancers sustained a high sense of danger. In one section, both catapulted across the space on intersecting diagonals, at first barely missing each other. After the inevitable crash, Meier dove at, somersaulted over and propelled herself off of Houston-Jones, who pushed her away. Each time she landed, gasping audibly, she picked herself up and returned for more.

“Tell Me” not only spoke to the wounded state of relationships. It was a work about the dancers’ physical courage.

“JB/Frankfurt/84,” Houston-Jones’ solo, was less a performance than a grieving ritual. Delicately but fiercely, he moved inside a circle of nine tall votive candles, his raw, wailing vocalizations hinting at words.

He swooped around the edge of the circle, coming so close to the lit candles that one held one’s breath. He gathered the candles together. One at a time, he held them aloft and let the hot wax run down his forearm.

Meier invited the audience to sit on stage for her “Bucket Solo” from “Pommes Frites,” but it was a dicey proposition. This hilarious dance involved Meier stomping in and pouring out the contents of four buckets of water, which then spread toward people seated on the floor.