By John David Back
If you had told me last week that politics, influence, manipulation, and gratuitous hair-pulling would make up the dance performance I was to see the other night, I would have only half believed you. And what could Lyndon B. Johnson or violent barking fits have anything to do with modern dance? What could dancing have to do with politics? Why are there dozens of chairs attached floor to ceiling on the wall behind the stage?

Well, I’m happy to tell you that even though I loved it, I still don’t know the answers.

I do have a better idea, however. The physical, often times uncomfortable, and somewhat mind-boggling Contemporary Dance Theater event took me on a journey. I never knew where we were going, or how we were getting there, but when the curtain closed I knew I had seen something powerful and worthwhile.

The best I can explain intellectual modern dance is like this: Imagine your job is to read a story based on body language. Then also imagine that body language is in a foreign language. Then imagine their language also uses slang words and figures of speech and you’re just learning colors and shapes. Then imagine that perhaps you’re not even supposed to follow it perfectly, that maybe the whole point is that you take from it what you will, what your own intellect tells you.

This dance group is beyond talented. They were dancing, proselytizing, teaching, challenging, panting, and really sweating. A realization smacked me in the face mid performance when I thought “Wow, they look so animal in their movements”, and it dawned on me that they ARE animals. They are human animals, and this is raw humanity.

I know almost nothing about modern dance. I researched nothing, and I don’t plan to. I like the idea of using my own brain, my own senses, my own attention to try to figure out what the choreographer, through these incredibly skilled dancers, wants me to ken.

Here are my stabs at understanding:
– When one dancer would physically move another, that represented mental manipulation
– When a dancer would block another dancer, that could mean political manipulation
– When the dancers would bark and chomp their jaws, sometimes in terrifying fits, that indicated a personal or internal struggle
– When all the dancers were pulling at their pants and underwear, stretching the fabric at their crotches, that meant that politicians were just people, with people problems
– When the lady behind me kept whispering to her friend and I never gave her a mean look, that meant I was growing up

Out of all the art I’ve seen lately, this has by far been the most mentally stimulating, and the most humbling. I felt for a while that maybe I’m just not smart enough. Or hip enough. Or informed enough. But as I walked the few blocks home from the performance and turned it over in my head, I realized that it’s not about any of that. It’s about my understanding of my own beliefs and perceptions being prodded and stimulated by these dancers and their artistry.

The performance is only two nights, but it’s not the end. Contemporary Dance Theater provides a ton of great dance, and I can’t wait to see something else. Come with me. I bet we’ll learn something.

John David Back is a Cincinnati native who lives and works in OTR. He’s an avid reader and a mediocre writer who loves the experience of art and beauty. Tell him what he should experience and send fan mail to johndavidback@gmail.com.