Cock Fights on the Floor
If you had to publish a book called "101 Ways to Succeed on the Downtown Dance Scene," you'd probably want Christopher Elam to write it. The 30-year-old Brown graduate's schedule fancies a harried to-do list of an in-demand choreographer. Judging by his resume, Elam must spend half his life in rehearsals and the other half writing grant applications. His performances have been sponsored by the Mellon Foundation, The Joyce and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, among others. It makes you wonder just how many gifted young choreographers with less intestinal fortitude for self-promotion have fallen by the wayside in this crazy city.
Elam's innovative technique draws inspiration from a myriad of terpsichorean traditions such as Balinese dance, Cuban salsa and contemporary idioms that result in an angular, distinct style; an imprimatur all his own that some simply qualify as "weird." Though labeled a late starter (he took his first formal classes at age 20), he had already choreographed 15 dances by the time he learned his first proper tendu. One performance by his Misnomer Dance Theater this year showcased dancers slithering about like alien reptilia, followed by an almost Hopperesque two-person composition about the inability to connect, which took place on a bucolic rural window sill.
Fast-forward to Elam's current show, Throw People, inspired by (of all things!) Indonesian chicken fights, those terrifyingly implausible events in which chickens are thrown into rings and tear each other apart with razor blades. There's a lot of rough and tumble partnering in the pieces, but no razors or cutting, so don't be frightened away. The evening just might unfold as one of your most interesting.