Rubberband @ The Joyce

Rubberband, under choreographer and artistic director Victor Quijada opened The Joyce Theater’s 2019-2020 season (the first on a really good season curated for Aaron Mattocks, the new Director of Programming).  Quijada’s evening-length Ever So Slightly is long, and packed with ideas on top of ideas about his promised look at “…irritants that bombard us in our daily lives” but doesn't quite get there. There is so much good dancing, but sadly, the work flat lines at about the ¾ point and the intended message just repeats itself.  At intervals, between this mix of hip hop and contemporary styles, there are long and slow sequences of implosive drama where a soloist is surrounded by the cast as they watch.  Like daggers, bodies jut repeatedly in and out of the floor, or with uncomfortable determination, a dancer punches his head with his fist. The ten dancer-athletes, as they are called, are equally billed as choreographers, and they give their all. Harken back to the very beginning and that’s where the pleasure meter is tipped.  In the upper right corner (stage left), the musicians (Jasper Gahunia and William Lamoureux) set the tone, and the white catty-corner floor is peopled with the dancer-athletes, ready to go.  Music and movement begins, and the stage is on fire with hop hop and then some, taken to a pleasurable high.  Here, and only here is where Quijada mixes the many ideas with just enough other forms. 
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The dancer-athletes are: Amara Barner, Jean Bui, Daniela Jezerinac, Sydney McManus, Bronte Poire-Prest, Jerimy Rivera, Zack Tang or Jontae McCrory, Ryan Taylor, Lavinia Vago and Paco Ziel. Live musicians are: Gahunia on bass, drum machine, keyboard and turntable, and Lamoureux on violin, guitar and keyboard.