Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People’s Last Meadow was a piece that I found mostly lacking in coherence and accessibility. It didn’t resonate with me on any level. As I rode home on my bike, feeling exasperated, dissatisfied and empty, questions filled my head: was it a dance? Or performance art? Or something else? And what, if anything, was it trying to communicate?
The performance was a mixed bag of dance-like movements, performance art, spoken word and stage acting, but the rhythm of it changed so often and so abruptly that it was hard if not impossible to retain its central thread. I found my mind wandering for much of the performance.
More than once, it appeared to be over. Several audience members, apparently wanting to hurry the ending, applauded weakly. The fact that it was so difficult to distinguish a transition from the ending made me wonder, at times, whether it was intended to seem improvisational or not.
A moment which epitomized the ambiguity of the choreography came when one member of the troupe, dictating instructions to the others, called out “Arbitrary Movement!” and the three performers, with only slight variation, made all but identical motions with their arms.
There were some good moments, though. At one point, there was a well-scripted segment in which one of the dancers, lying on the floor, quietly spoke directions and all three moved beautifully in rhythm. As the show got louder and the movements faster, the performers seemed to become more comfortable with their roles on stage. Eventually, as clothes and wigs were tossed to all corners of the stage, they disco-danced with what felt like authenticity.
Neal Medlyn’s sound design was just as catastrophic as the performance, equally lacking in coherence or continuity. Discordant cacophonies of noise alternated with moody instrumental pieces, industrial house music, classical music, and the occasional ballad. Rather than supporting the moods on stage, the music made it harder to focus on them.
In what was probably the evening’s highlight, a moth skittered across the stage, in time to the music and serenaded the dancers at their feet. The audience came alert and craned their necks to see what it was.
I was disappointed when I realized it wasn’t part of the performance.
– Seth Needler
