Doug Varone and Dancers

Last night I saw the company Doug Varone and Dancers perform an extended piece, Chapters from a Broken Novel, at the Joyce.

This was a beautiful, lyrical, and at time harsh and aggressive dance. Very complex and stylized. Very emotional, but very controlled.

There were twenty separate dances, each rich and evocative and dense. Each complete in and of itself. Of course I liked some more than others. For instance. a piece where the cast of 7 dancers kept moving each others limbs. It had a mechanical yet haunted effect; or some of the more "dancy" pieces with the entire company. However, I enjoyed the whole thing thoroughly, was engrossed for every minute.

The music, by David Van Teighem, was a little difficult for me to adjust to at first. But once I did, after the first piece or so, it worked so, so well with the movement.

I went with a friend who said that sometimes dance feels cold for her. I could see that coldness a bit in this work, in a way. Even though it was highly emotional and intense, it was also very controlled and highly aesthetic. Some of the emotion at times felt jarring and confrontational (not in a bad way, though).

My only problem with Chapters from a Broken Novel is the title. It made me strain to find narrative coherence between each dance, and this was distracting and unnecessary. The word "novel" was a stumbling block for me.