Choreographer Jennifer Wood set out to be boring, and instead created her most provocative piece of the year. Go figure. Midway through Suchu's
The Dirty Show, the dancers simply stood facing the audience for a full two minutes. Wood says she had to force herself not to throw in any of her signature energetic, explosive moves. But it's not as if nothing was going on: The intensity of the dancers' facial expressions, the properness of their curiously colonial costumes and the large mound of dirt in the middle of the stage all contributed to an eerie sense of anticipation. Finally, the dancers did what the audience was waiting for: They got their nice clothes dirty, sliding and rolling through the mound, scattering the dirt all over the stage. The storm was engaging, to say the least, but not nearly as much as the calm before it.