One line, by Rilke, illuminates something that seems to mirror the dance itself: “For however mysterious death is, life is all the more so.”Īt 80, Dunn is still spry. Beneath the whimsy are deeper ideas, in which poetry - read in voice-over by Dunn Grazia Della-Terza, Dunn’s partner and a dancer in the work and others - touches on themes of loss, love and death. It’s a little goofy, but that’s part of Dunn’s appeal, too. Throughout much of the first half, Dunn sits behind a colorful pulpit camouflaged like a plant he wears a green top and bottoms dotted with tiny leaves.Īt one point, he moves a large stuffed blue bird from side to side, making it airborne.
Within the movement - Dunn credits himself with “steps” - poetry and music provide a sort of libretto, including text from the poets Anne Waldman and Rainer Maria Rilke and songs by John Lennon and Yoko Ono (“Oh My Love”) and Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris (“If This Is Goodbye”).
That Dunn’s studio is the real deal - a dancer’s loft in SoHo where art is still not only made, but also shown - makes the enchanted view all the better. The ever-evolving costumes help to turn this landscape into a living mural. From time to time, there are additions, like wispy skirts and translucent capes, but they operate as more than clothing. They also wear Gross’s costumes, gorgeously cut leotards, each different but each embellished with a pop of fluorescent yellow. In “Garden Party,” Gross has taken their collaboration to a new level by transforming Dunn’s studio into a springtime oasis, within which 10 dancers, including Dunn, immerse themselves in a lush and somewhat leafy setting: a quirky and whimsical dance garden. They first worked together in 1979, when she designed the body-conscious, colorful costumes for “Foot Rules.” He met his match, years ago, in the visual artist and designer Mimi Gross. This is a choreographer and dancer who merges formalism with the fantastical. Costumes that slip into the outlandish? Bring them on. Douglas Dunn isn’t afraid of color, or even of dizzying patterns placed on color.
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