Past
RepertoryAnother Parade
“Subtle Gestures Infused With Meaning and Power... (Monica Bill Barnes') choreography has a genuine wit and humor.”
Another Parade is presented in the 2009 Season of the 92nd Street Y
Harkness Dance Festival at The Ailey Citigroup Theater at The Joan
Weill Center for Dance.
Another Parade celebrates the singular, exhilarating experience of
being on stage. This evening length work features four ungainly
winning performers who flirt with subtlety while wearing their hearts
on their sleeves. Another Parade is a go for broke, all out dance
event that packs much punch while straddling awkward and debonair.
“Suddenly Summer Somewhere barrels along once it hits the floor, a thing of manic, mugging grins; lumbering embraces; and big, juicy syncopated sprints through space that seems to have just opened out. Suddenly love has pushed through zany, witty pratfalls for the body and the soul.”
Two small women stand on top of a dining room table. In silence, carefully navigating the table top, they send silverware crashing to the floor. Simultaneously hilarious and painful, Suddenly Summer Somewhere explores how the passage of time affects the collective lives of two people.
“There's a reason comedy and dance are rarely paired. Barnes breaks all the rules, but also tempers the clowning around with enough darkness and pity to make us care.”
As co-dependent dueling characters, Barnes and Lohse perform side-by-side pausing occasionally for a self-congratulatory pat on the back. Inspired by Buster Keaton, this deadpan duo unfolds in three short acts until in an unexpected tragic turn.
“Ms. Barnes has the kind of humor - not a snicker in sight - that is in woefully short supply in dance these days”
Virtuosity and humor, Berlioz to McCartney, celebration of feminism: six post-modern solo dances with a pop culture spin. In a masterful turn, sudden touches-a cough or stumble-turn zaniness into a profoundly humanistic character study. A singer, and audience participation, add to the living-room intimacy of these kinetic self-portraits. - Lincoln Center Institute
“With sharply synchronized movements performed in the circular fountain at Bowling Green Park, the performance of Monica Bill Barnes' dance was too much fun to miss.”
A public fountain is somehow exactly the right venue for this water-based extravaganza; in which some dozen dancers perform an energetic group number that they seem convinced is the star turn of their respective careers. With an exuberance that is infectious, the performers execute the clever choreography in unison - yet almost unaware of each other, so caught up in their own particular moments are they. Clad in bright swim attire and sneakers, they execute sharp movements to the music of the Supremes with bravado and panache, and props like sunglasses and umbrellas only heighten the theatricality of their dance while underscoring its bizarre setting. This thoroughly engaging and completely charming piece has been customized for performances in fountains across the country, including ones in New York, San Diego, and Philadelphia.
Hollywood Endings (2005)
“Barnes has used her considerable skill as a choreographer to make a piece that looks charmingly rickety, beautifully tawdry, and profoundly good-hearted... [Hollywood Endings is...] a charmingly outlandish revue in which nothing is predictable..”
Nothing comes easily to the characters in Hollywood Endings. However, humor does co-exist alongside pain in Barnes' world, and hope (as well as slapstick) bubbles up regularly. Set in a very intimate and homey performance space, and accompanied by the earnest music of Presley and Patsy Cline, this collection of solos, group work and vocal renderings is both compelling and heartbreaking to watch
Once I was in a Beauty Contest, But my Strap Broke
“Once I was in a Beauty Contest, But my Strap Broke is comic delight. Barnes is an impudent flea of a dancer and the solo made perfect sense as a zany, purely physical response to the music.”
Emerging from the toy theater backdrop for Rodeo, Barnes moves with a sometimes sweeping, sometimes locked-limbed Chaplinesque grace. Lively Beatles music elicts Barnes' innate musicality and athleticism in this very smart, very funny exploration of feminism.
Relinquish
“Ms. Barnes was extraordinary - her masterful face adds a whole other level of theatricality and meaning to her performance.”
Schubert's music and evocative lighting create a world that is reminiscent of an 18th century Russian novel, complete with falling snow, and Barnes as our resolute heroine..”
Awake and Sing
“A totally present performer, whose dancing draws from the gutsiness of modern dance and the spontaneity of jazz.”
In this quirky solo set to Klezmer music, Barnes dances with flat-footed and rythmic earnestness. Adding to the humor and charm is Lohse, who emerges from the audience and bursts into spontaneous song partway through the piece. In a suprising turn of events, Lohse coaxes the entire audience to join her in song.
She Snapped/She Left
“It's an engaging introduction to her personal style. Barnes suggests the blithe maiden of decades-ago dance, but with kinks...where charm and discomfort duke it out.”
Stirring opera music strong the tone for this solo, in which a nightgown-clad Barnes embodies both frailty and strength in the same breath, at one moment clumsy and, in the next valiant.
Maybellene
“Ms. Barnes has a magic to her presence, an energy that beams from every look, every motion.”
This excerpt from the 2002 evening-length work When We Were Pretty is a celebration, a romp, and a pure pleasure. Barnes chooses her signposts well; A tube of lipstick, drawn at a strategic moment from her sock, speaks volumes about the journey from girlhood to womanhood, with stops along the way that include a ride on a hoppity horse.
Upset Woman Dance
“Barnes presents herself in a luscious, delightful solo, Upset Woman Dance. With tongue-in-cheek and long wavy hair down, she tosses her way through a humorous romp of scorn while never letting go of her obvious technical prowess. She is a witty and welcoming performer.”
This cheeky solo features a comically distraught woman dancing wildly to the music of Janis Joplin. A tutu-wearing sidekick periodically passes through, carrying signs telling the audience exactly what to think about what it is seeing.
The Happy Dance (or what started out ok) (2004)
The Happy Dance - a site-specific dance installation (2003)
When We Were Pretty (2002)
Home (2001)
From My Mother's Tongue (2001)
Sighting (2000)
The Rodeo Solo Show (2000)
Duets and Other Stories (1999)
Bella, My Beautiful Mothers (1998)
Remembered and Revisited (1998)
The length of time over which one's memory extends (1997)
Marriage Material -a site-specific study in a hallway (1997)