le freak c'est chic!

On a rainy Thursday night last week a couple of us rode the subway to Brooklyn Art Museum (BAM) to see a dance performance choreographed by British choreographer Matthew Bourne. The dance performance was based exclusively on Tim Burton's movie Edward Scissorhands, a personal favorite of mine, and tells the story of a boy who has sharp, twitching blades for hands, and the suburban town who welcomes him onto their carefully manicured lawns. While the movie's morals are apparent, the story, expressed through movement highlights the nuances of the tale that much more.
Burke is a renowned for his offbeat, comedic, and sometimes dark performances such as a homo-errotic spin on Swan Lake, and a version of the Nutcracker where Clara, the young girl falls in love with and is kidnapped by the Nutcracker! In Edward Scissorhands, Burke relies on a modern dance aesthetic, coupled with a brilliant set that adds enchantment to a typical suburban town. Clearly, Burke possesses enormous talent as a choreographer, as he encouraged his dancers to rely on the natural way their characters would move and then syncs the performers on one stage. The housewife slut prowls the stage, moving quickly, while the suburban mom who takes Edward in steps gently with graceful movements in her hands and neck. Edward himself alternates between ferociously swinging his blades as he leaps across the stage and gently sliding his scissorhands back and forth in timid strokes. Finally, the dark side of the town which is a female character in the movie is portrayed by a group of gothic teenagers whose clustered formation and stealth like steps resemble the crucification of Jesus!
In addition to an excellent, all around performance by the dancers, the score, played by a live orchestra evoked both a dark and tender mood, the perfect compliment to the story of a skittish freak in American suburbia. The music, costumes, and stage set were exquisite elements in Bourne's Edward Scissorhands adaptation. But, as the performance came to a close, it became clear that while body language is often regarded, we can actually rely on human movement as an entirely complete form of communication and expression.