by Leigh Witchel
If you like your dancing free-spirited, this is your show. “SW!NG OUT” is in two unequal parts; the first was a performance that broke multiple stereotypes without making a fuss about it. The second part was a 30 minute set for the band where the audience came up on stage and danced. To start, twelve expert swing dancers of all gender expressions, races and body types hoofed through solos, duets and group numbers accompanied by Eyal Vilner’s top-notch big band and velvet-voiced Imani Rouselle.
Caleb Teicher (who uses the pronoun “they”) directed, but a creative team of six (the “Braintrust”) contributed. We took our seats with the curtain slightly raised so that you could only see feet; a distant echo of Tommy Tune’s staging for the “Famous Feet” number in “A Day in Hollywood.” The show’s craft connects back to plenty of earlier masters.
Every possible permutation of duet and trio was used, but never to produce tension. Think of Paul Taylor’s “Piazzolla Caldera,” where he used seven men and five women. The show went with six and six, but in any and every coupling and possibility of leading or following. Everyone got a partner soon enough, because everyone was dancing with everyone and the dancing was a bigger deal than the everyone.
“SW!NG OUT” had the revue structure and relaxed atmosphere of a nightclub. Only once did it get too relaxed, when mentalist Jason Suran unaccountably showed up to do his act. A mentalist in the middle of a dance concert was more of a digression than an interlude, though he did correctly name audience members’ pets.
Teicher is thin, weedy, and sharp in attack. They leapfrogged over a couple to do a solo and slow danced with Joshua Mclean to “My Baby Just Cares for Me,” beautifully sung by Rouselle.
The partnering here was unlike tango or ballet, particularly in intention. It was more equal, even though there were leaders and followers. There was less of a sense of desire and more one of play, as partners switched or Mclean assisted Teicher in a high kick. No one was without a partner for long, and after they danced, people hugged one another in exhausted delight.
There were some echoes of other forms, including tango. AJ Howard promenaded Gaby Cook around as she held an attitude, then sank her low. Later on in the show, she flew overhead, tossed by him. Teicher did rivoltades, but skipped one, indicating it with their fingers. Brad Lawton did one to begin his variation, taking up the movement thread and tweaking Teicher.
The show is part choreographed; part improvised, but that kind of tight performance is only possible with a universe of moves the dancers know down cold. They’re taking things down off the shelves of their muscle memory, not making them up on the spot. Evita Arce did a section with Vilner and his saxophone that started with call and response, but the call and response got closer and closer until they were working together and improvisation seemed more like choreography.
LaTasha Barnes got a featured turn in a showstopping, playful solo that turned into world-class shimmying. Everyone applauded including onstage. A duet was cast by picking the two participants out of a hat “Just to show you we’re not cheating.” Teicher drew the first; the second one was picked by a member of the audience. It was Howard and Michael Jagger, to “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” and brought home the gender-busting intent of the show with cheeky serendipity rather than a lecture.
High concept ideas stayed accessible. Nathan Bugh danced a solo in silence, but it wasn’t silence. It was song he had in his head, and he occasionally vocalized bits that we couldn’t quite make out. A number without the band created the music from the dancers’ footfalls; breaking into three groups for polyrhythms. Teicher worked with David Parker, who specializes in that, and some may have rubbed off.
The show climbed to a group showoff number with the cast switching off into partnering combinations of every kind and switching off, connecting back to venerable predecessors, including the Tarantella from Bournonville’s “Napoli.”
Even in groups, though, this wasn’t a corps, but a confederation of soloists. Everyone danced in a line – but does the same steps their own way. Unison sections had the joy of a party.
The curtain dropped most of the way, back to where it was at the beginning, and the dancers fell to the stage, indicating the end of the performance section. Teicher made a brief announcement; during intermission the dancers got out of their costumes and into T-shirts, and then the band led a half-hour swing set where the audience came onstage. The audience must have come from the swing dance community; not only were there plenty of participants, there were line dances everyone knew.
In a tight, well-crafted jewel box, Teicher and friends imagined an ideal world through swing dance. Or at least their ideal evening out.
copyright © 2021 by Leigh Witchel
“SW!NG OUT”
The Joyce Theater, New York, NY
October 6, 2021
Cover: AJ Howard and Gaby Cook in “SW!NG OUT.” Photo credit © Grace Kathryn Landefeld
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