Christine Elmo’s Aimless Unicorns Impressions of the Friday performance.

Christine Elmo’s dance piece can be interpreted a bit differently than Ms. Hodges perspective. The opening sequence in my view had Elmo portraying a charactiture of an impresario or group leader maybe a CEO who had no artistic vision or charisma. Whether or not this leader was expressing his own ideas or those of another it seemed clear that the leader and his ideas were dull and uninspiring. Elmo was joined by four dancers who were followers, disciples, or employees. These dancers imitated dull and uninspired workers/dancers/disciples. They were bored and when they worked they plodded through their routine uninspired and robotic. Their costumes also reflected their uninspired situation. Their dance style clearly depicted the miserable lot these workers experienced. This is the Utopia of B. F. Skinner or a large Corporation.

The dancers paused for several minutes sleeping and barely dreaming as depicted by the slight movement of the spirit behind the curtain. They were as uninspired by their own dreams as they were by their boss.

The unison dance referred to by Ms. Hodges had a distinctly different feel and reflected these workers in their free time. These people are still human and were obviously sexually inspired. They changed clothes and even the mustache was passed to another dancer. Maybe, now a different leader of the pack. Elmo became one of the group dancers. The tone was upbeat and the scene was different maybe now a night out at the club. The dance reflected modern pop cliches and the dancers idea of a modern Utopia. Yes, nightlife, the club scene, pop music, and sexual pursuit might be more upbeat than the daily work routine of the dancers, but is it any more inspired? Is this idea of Utopia any better? The dance depicted two Utopian visions. Neither of these would be satisfying to me but both are everyday reality. Our time is ruled by the ideas of others. The guys with the mustache had but two of them. Our own freedoms of thought and expression are often under the influence of others who are sure their ideas are best for us and even better for them. Christine Elmo gave us more to think about than just the dancers movement about the dance space. Yes there was a lot of familiar territory. Many of us see it every night and day.

Rich Byrne