Push Festival

Tonight went to see a New York based group called the Nature Theatre of Oklahoma do a piece called Poetics: ballet brut. Four average people taking a series of about twelve clumsy movements seemingly observed in coffee shops and street corners, and knitting them into a cohesive piece, to songs like You Can Dance if you Want to. The message is that anyone can create dance, that it's not just for the trained. Many long moments spent staring at each other, then staring at the audience. Many long moments simply holding a hand behind their head, or putting their hands on their hips. And as soon as it got to be unbearably boring, they brought you back and did something cool. But there were definitely self-indulgent parts, when the message was too hit-over-your-head, when the charm of watching untrained hipsters jump around the stage was simply annoying, when you wanted there to be some display of grace. But that's the point as well - our reactions to observing "bad" dance. But the ending is all worth it.