FIRST time, i gave the Kitchen 5 stars! We saw Armitage Now Punk last spring--- karole armitage's dance troupe with a jeff koons stage set and live punk music and it was the most amazing thing i did in nyc. $15 tickets can't be beat. and a nice small, intimate stage.
i am going to update this so as to include the crap experience i had last night at the Garcia/Granoff dance-whatever thing.
____________________ LAST NIGHT... not so good.
it was like watching the less adept in my yoga classes.
lots of hipsters bumping into each other and taking themselves, (but not us, the audience) very seriously.
lots fleshy bumping and flopping and trembling... plus some shaky awkward looking positions and movements that made me want to laugh... and i see a lot of modern dance and am usually not inclined to laugh.
i guess a good, basic rule of thumb: if i can do something similar, you are not a good modern dancer.
during the intermission, we debated leaving. but in honor of karole armitage we stayed.
and then the second part was even more hipster-fied.
opening with a kind of meaningless hipster cocktail party sequence it progressed into a kind of pseudo-intellectual masturbatory lecture by a chick wearing heartshaped sunglasses and a homemade kimono and some bearded hipster dude who was pacing and lecturing the audience in artforum-speak.
we awaited painfully the moment when we could slip out. "it's not going to be possible," i thought, heart heavy with despair. never had new york city's mean streets seemed so beautiful and liberating. then we saw some shadowy shapes on the other side of the stairs also discreetly making their way out.
we observed the rows of empty seats left behind after intermission.
and we too, gathering up our courage, slipped out into the dark and friendly night, without even looking back. we ran into several other refugees outside, to whom we made friendly gestures of solidarity and went on our way.
so that is why the kitchen has 3 but not 5 stars. read more