![_Golden State Warriors Officially Moving To San Francisco [Updated]](http://sfist.com/assets_c/2012/05/SFArena_Rendering-thumb-250x250-715954.jpg)
SFist Reviews Loose Change's Human Nature
There are not many words that scares us more than the words "interpretive dance." And there are not many phrases that scare us more than "examines modern man’s increasing disconnection from community, ritual and the environment." Throw both of them together and you got something that makes us want to run to VH-1 as fast as possible. So we went to see Loose Change's recent show, "Human Nature" at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts last Saturday anyways. And you know what? We kind of liked the show.
We liked the staging and we dug some of the music and we got into the dancing and we thought some of the staged sets were pretty innovative and extremely well-done. Yes, it had it’s pretensions, but what would interpretive dance be without pretension?
At first, we were a little scared when the thing started and some guy in white face slithered around all snake-like and played shaman. But then the next set, which featured dancers rhythmically crawling around underneath long pieces of white cloth, was kind of interesting in it's use of light, music, and color. Somewhere along the line (we forgot when) a bunch of dancers in faux-corporate garb came out, all grim and mechanized. Some other dancers, looking straight out of those Gap commercials where all the Gap kids danced, also appeared on the stage along with the corporate dancers and, yes, there was a dance off. Then the corporate dancers slowly went off the stage, leaving the Gap kids to do their thing. According to the notes, this was supposed to symbolize childhood, but we thought it represented more the artistic spirit vs. corporate culture. But, whatever, we'll go with it.
The next few set pieces were absolutely brilliant. First the corporate guys came out again and made movements that made them look like they were typing away, corporate drones in complete synchronicity. Between the outfits, the movements, and the lighting, it made us think of Brazil. That was followed by the main dancer, a tall skinny bald guy who looked a like any number of people we see in yoga class (director and choreographer Eric Fenn) came out and in this great flurry of movement, fought off the corporate dancers trying to put him into a suit jacket. He'd fight the action, but then somebody would swoop in and try again to put him in the jacket and he'd fight them off and somebody else would jump in, allthewhile the jacket never actually left Fenn's arms. When it was over, it couldn't have been more intentional that Fenn was made to look like he was in a straight jacket. Needless to say, the audience exploded after this set piece and we were fully with them. It was great.
Unfortunately, the second half wasn't as good. We liked the section set piece as dancers once again moved rhythmically underneath long strips of cloth, this time blood red, until they literally get dragged out by people pulling them from their cloth, but the rest of it kind of blurred into one. We think it was that while the first half told an actual story, that being of man entering leaving childhood to join the working, non-spiritual world, the second half was mainly about the inner struggle of man trying reassert himself. Which is all fine and good but there wasn't much variety to it. The first half's set pieces were all different. The set pieces in the second half were not.
But still, we have to admit to liking it. We did run to VH-1 afterwards, but we did so knowing that we had just gone highbrow and survived.