“Ambiguous humor […] eerily removed from their preposterous, wince-inducing flexibility”
—New York PRess
Cheapest (2005)
3 dancers
Cheapest is third installment of the “Inexpensive Trilogy” (following the 1999 solo Cheap, and the 2003 duet Cheaper). This trio of dancers ups the ante with the tricks they perform as Jody Sperling’s exploration on the theme of doing tricks continues.
The dancers challenge the limits of their strength and flexibility with feats culled from contortion acts, yogic competitions and acrobatic partnering. Michelle Ferranti’s colorfully-striped unitards enhance the choreography’s tangled shapes as the dancers at times get stuck in oddly twisted ways. Only through collaborative pretzel-ling are they able to free their bodies.
CHOREOGRAPHY: Jody Sperling
DANCERS: Lisa Natoli, Ashley Sowell & Jody Sperling
ORIGINAL SCORE: Quentin Chiappetta
COSTUMES: Michelle Ferranti
“The boozy score of another trio, Cheapest, is redolent of a carnival sideshow contortion act. If David Lynch staged clowns at Coney Island, they might act something like this. An ambiguous humor emerges from the dancers’ affect, which often seems eerily removed from their preposterous, wince-inducing flexibility.”
–Chris Dohse, New York Press
Photos by Julie Lemberger