Choreographer Jamie Benson’s new performance spectacle this weekend is a mouthful, so we’re going to break it down for you.
Friday and Saturday’s showdown will include a collection of dance vignettes titled Mixed Marriages, which was actually put together after his partner Andrae Gonzalo moved to NYC to design evening wear, during which Benson has stayed in LA. Benson claims the couple, “Literally willed the performance to exist through the power of video chatting.” The dance explores Benson and Gonzalo’s relationship and recent changes (including Gonzalo’s move to NY) as well as the trials and tribulations that comes with couple’s counseling, in hopes of revealing a more universal exploration of love and loneliness.
Then there’s Homestretch, a collaboration with award-winning Choreographer Carmela Hermann and ‘gay retiree’ Performance Artist Terrence Luke Johnson is a second installment of dance exploring the same themes of the first and then some. Promised themes include pregnancy obsession, daddy issues, and a bit of homosexuality thrown in for some extra flair (like it’s totally needed).
If that isn’t quite enough for you, the evenings are also going to include the debut screening of United, a short by Jesse Schoem about the likely topic of romance, filmed via the unlikely angle of only knee down footage.
Still from United
And just to shake things up a little further, another leg of Benson’s performance will include an intro to our personal favorite (at least in theory), the Human Swiffer, who as his ad proclaims, will dance maybe a little dirtier than we’re used to seeing on the commercials.
Human Swiffer
Should be good stuff.
The Vitals: 8:30 PM, Friday October 21st and Saturday October 22nd, at Highways Performance Space, 1651 18th St., Santa Monica. $20 general admission, $15 for members, students & seniors. Call 310.315.1459 or go to highwaysperformance.org for tickets and more info.
All photos from jamiebenson.com
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