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Nothing

Suchu Dance artistic director and choreographer Jennifer Wood’s work is often difficult to describe. It’s contemporary dance, of course, but beyond that most labels fall short of adequately describing her creations. “We’re compiling a Suchu dictionary,” says Aileen Mapes, one of the performing artists dancing in Wood’s current production, Nothing. “When we’re in rehearsal, we’re always saying, ‘Hey, that’s a good one for the Suchu dictionary.’” Among the terms already suggested are “seaweed arms” and “an elephant in your pants.” (“Seaweed arms” we get, but we’re having a little trouble visualizing “an elephant in your pants.”)

Nothing, a two-act evening-length work, will be performed in the round, with the audience on all sides of the performers. “I think it’s really going to be fun for the audience. It’s so intimate. The audience will be all around us and also really close. That’s a very different kinetic relationship with your audience. In learning our phrases, we’ve been saying, ‘Why am I even thinking of this as a front?’ We don’t have a front. I have to really be conscious of being seen from all around. We’re not inside a box;, we’re in a cube, because a box may insinuate that there’s a front.”

8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays. Through February 22. 3480 Ella. For information, visit suchudance.org. Pay-what-you-want to $20.
Mondays, Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Starts: Feb. 6. Continues through Feb. 22, 2014

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Olivia Flores Alvarez