This photo is so, so tame compared to what actually happened on that stage.
  • Jenny May Peterson
  • This photo is so, so tame compared to what actually happened on that stage.

Last weekend at On the Boards, audiences squirmed through the quartet, Heather Kravas's punishing, four-act vivisection of different dance genres: sinister naked cheerleading; agonizing ballet with dancers performing an interminable series of sous-sus steps (a hop up onto the toes and back down again) that should be banned as torture under the Geneva Convention; a revved-up, Broadway-style chorus line whose only lyric was "want"; and disturbingly cartoonish European folk dance (disturbing because the cartooninzation of folk culture is always a first step towards fascism).

jenny_may_peterson_2.jpg
  • Jenny May Peterson

Most of the audience sat on metal bleachers on the stage—audience as set piece—adding to the discomfort, both psychological and lumbar. After the applause died down, a couple sitting next to me had this exchange: "We're going to have to discuss this." "Yeah. Hard." The severity of the quartet was classic OtB, hacking its audience into three camps: love, loathing, and confusion. Some of us felt all three simultaneously.

And I confess I felt a thrill of evil glee watching people's expressions change as they figured out what they were in for. The first section was all nudity and cheerleading, punctuated with four-person pornographic tableaux and scored with experimental guitar playing club-style beats. So far, so groovy. People nodded to the music, gawked at the bodies, and lightly groped their dates. But as the quartet transitioned into severity and scariness (ballet automatons, vicious mockery of musical theater), the smiles slowly melted—and, in some cases, turned into grimaces.

Kravas played her audience like a kazoo—and the snippets of conversation I heard in the lobby afterwards were buzzing with resentment. I did not necessarily enjoy every minute of the quartet. (Does anyone? The dancers must dread performing it.)

But I admired its ambition, its audacity, and its artful cruelty.

More words about arts stuff in this week's Loose Lips.