Contemporary dance is famous for sampling movement and gestures from international folk dances, American hiphop--even the simple acts of breathing and walking. But headbanging and flashing devil horns? They're the dance du jour at Buttrock Suites II… Sweeter, in its closing weekend at Velocity MainSpace Theater.
Buttrock Suites is a marriage of the serious and the frivolous, where contemporary choreographers have a two-weekend fling with Van Halen, Lita Ford, and Twisted Sister. "It's not anything you'd expect to see at a dance show," said Diana Cardiff, a performer with Pat Graney and Wade Madsen, and one of the event's producers and choreographers.
Some of the performers wasted this opportunity to borrow from pop culture, dumbing themselves down and letting funny wigs, tight pants, and a bunch of crotch thrusts do all the work. But others really went for it, like the inspired Juliet Waller Pruzan, who sincerely engaged with Ozzy's Crazy Train and came out the other end with a solo piece that was frightening, odd, and deeply funny, much like Ozzy himself.
Cardiff was a high-school New Waver, but her brother taught her what buttrock was all about: giving yourself a little thrill and making everyone else uncomfortable. "He used to play 'Big Balls' by AC/DC when my friends came over just to embarrass me."
In time, she learned to appreciate the shredding guitars and epic antics that attracted so many corn-fed young Americans. "It's all so dramatic," she said. "So ripe for doing big dance. I want to give props to that kind of music as equally as any other. Plus, it cracks me up." Buttrock Suites premiered last year and its wild success took everyone by surprise. Some of last year's crowd attended with snooty reluctance, thinking the thrash would debase the dance. Others were delighted by the idea. But everybody reacted.
"Even people who hate the music had a good time," Cardiff said. "People were screaming, stomping, and flicking their lighters. It was great." They did the same the night I attended, and it wasn't just the music--even in its weaker moments, the show is grand spectacle, with bared breasts, a roller-derby finale, and my favorite, an enormous clown puppet named Godfrey Daniels who frolicked to AC/DC, doing tricks with (what else?) his big balls.
