Aerial Allusions
nytheatre.com review by Ed Malin
February 22, 2012
Performance artists Jason Morneau, from Windsor, Ontario, and Azana, from San Francisco, California, present Aerial Allusions, a series of dance meditations on love. Part ballet, part clowning and gymnastics, part super-loud club experience, this show filled me with the vibrating urgency of loneliness seeking to annihilate itself.
Partner-dancing, or in some cases partner-chasing involving contortions on a ladder, conveys the hit-or-miss nature of relationships. Morneau speaks some explanations between the exciting, erotic dances, which are accompanied by songs such as “Spy in the House of Love” and “Fever.”
Several sexy costume changes decrease the amount of clothing the performers are wearing, while increasing lipstick and white face paint usage. What remains is a feeling of frustration at sometimes ambivalent signals, an exultation in the self, a desire to try again in spite of everything, all mixed with a bit of surrealism and fun.
Morneau is very distinctive with pointed beard, three-piece suits and teased long hair. Azana, who is attractively tattooed, is agile and able to do all sorts of consecutive rolls and flips. Together they present an entertaining show, with good music, which from New York will tour Fringe Festivals across Canada and the U.S.
