Seeking Asylum

FrenetiCore's new show is all-out Bedlam

Comments (0) By Julia Ramey Thursday, Jun 8 2006

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If you tell FrenetiCore that dance is supposed to be pretty, odds are they'll take your opinion, fling it to the ground and stomp on it with spike heels. For FrenetiCore, dance is the opposite of gauzy pink tutus and a graceful leap into a lover's arms: It's a means to a dark vision -- one that's ultimately much more real than Giselle or Swan Lake. In recent productions, they've protested the Iraq war, brought Orwell's Thought Police to life and feted Commodore 64 with their signature combo of unique video, original music and violent, sexualized modern movement. Their latest production, Bedlam, is a "magic urban realist tale" about an autistic woman in an asylum who seeks comfort in the form of a few heavily medicated, delusional fellow inmates. Rebekah French's choreography is set against original video that features visions of "forgotten architecture," like a gravel pit, an abandoned sanitarium and houses gutted by fire. Add in some dark ambient electronica and a gifted troupe of nine dancers, and a trip to the nuthouse might not seem so crazy after all.
June 9-12, 8 p.m.; June 15-18, 8 p.m.