It Has a Good Beat & You Can Dance to It

Only a former professional clown could have put together a dance/theater program as crazy, eclectic and fun as "Snappy Crayons and Other New Dances." George Whiteside '87 performed with the Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey Circus before choreographing and designing this show which combines modern dance, clowning and nonstop energy.

Whiteside is also one of Harvard's own. Having graduated in 1987 with a degree in Russian and Soviet studies, Whiteside moved on to study theater improvisation and performed with troupes in Boston. According to Whiteside, however, the biggest achievement of his life came when he toured with the Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey Circus as a clown in "The Greatest Show on Earth." "Snappy Crayons" is Whiteside's first attempt at choreographing a dance/theater production.

The show consists of a series of segments that combine the narrative of theater with the movement of dance. "Snappy Crayons," which lends the piece its title, is just one of these scenes. In this demonstration of the "soon-to-be sport of foam baton air drawing," Whiteside is joined by four cast members--Martha Mason, Marjorie Morgan, David Russell and Harvard junior John Blackmer '98. To the music of Bill Frisell, the dancers climb all over each other with remarkable strength, waving brightly colored foam batons. The ease with which the dancers twist their bodies around each other is fascinating, and the unpredictable contortions are sure to raise a laugh from the audience.

The first act features more complex interpretive dances such as "At Sea," starring Mason and Whiteside, and "Incoming," in which the comic element is less emphasized, though still present. Other pieces are purely comic.

In the opening scene, "Two Tenors?," Russell and Whiteside fiercely compete to see who has the greater voice range. Dressed in bathrobes, the two run up and down the scales in every key imaginable, straining their voices at either end.

Harvard student Blackmer makes his professional debut with "Snappy Crayons," not only dancing in the show, but also assisting in the choreography of several scenes, including the very funny "Gunslinger." "Gunslinger," the highlight of the second act, features Blackmer and Whiteside in a mock gunfight. Pantomiming guns with their hands, they climb on and over each other to a country western love song by Patsy Cline. The romantic undertones of the dance complicate this humorous scene, but even these more serious suggestions could not alter the general mood of fun.

The fast pace of the show, powered by the engergy of the performers, is sustained to the final scene, "Hot Rod Lincoln," in which all five cast members perform. Music by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen provides background while the dancers pantomime driving fast cars. That the dancers still effortlessly lift each other and climb around as if they hadn't been performing for nearly an hour and a half is amazing.

Scattered throughout both acts are interludes featuring Russell as a character in a "running series of catastrophic cameos." Whether he is bouncing around the stage, dancing to James Bond music or pretending to be narrowly missed by a speeding train, Russell shines in these consistently disjointed episodes. These 30-second, slap-stick moments, breaking up the longer, more abstract dance scenes, remind the audience that above all, "Snappy Crayons" is supposed to be fun.

"Snappy Crayons and Other Dances" succeeds because it is a fresh take on modern dance, stripping the genre of its over-abstract qualities and restoring a more basic, natural humor. The audience seems to respond easily to the pure fun of watching the antics of Whiteside and his cast, and is won over by both the relaxed nature of the performers and their physical skill and control. Hopefully the success of "Snappy Crayons" will inspire this alumnus of both Ringling Bros. and Harvard University to further dance/theater adventures.