SCOTT HERON
Dance Theater Workshop
October 26 through 29
The Village Voice, November 9, 2005

Scott Heron introduces himself with fanfare, albeit ironic fanfare. This postmodern clown stumbles down the aisle disguised as a box of dental floss; an offstage hand pulling out a length of floss induces erotic ecstasy. We're in the land of scratchy records, imperfect acts and absurd sights. Heron dons a hat with one big ear and one little one affixed and dances while flossing elaborately. Chanting, marching, leaping, he's a study in skinny angles. In "Gumdrops and Cupcakes", the songs Corey Dargel sings are as screwy as Heron's deeds, containing lines like "I've become so resilient from getting tangled up with you." (This number begins right after Heron hopscotches over a row of cupcakes.) Dargel addresses a song about a lover's grooming and habits to one of several glowing disks on the floor, while Heron, seated, tries to pick up one leg with the other.

He thrives on frumpy disguises. In "Big Lake," a film co-created with Thomas Little, he wears Theda Bara eye makeup and a straggly black wig to thrash in a storm tossed black-and-white ocean. At the end of the evening, pen cap between teeth, he makes rapid sketches of which he's very proud: an audience member, his own foot, his buttocks (surveying them involves quite a twist). Terrible and entrancing!

—DEBORAH JOWITT