"Para-Dice" (l-r ) Sanchez, Osborne & Hoffbauer Photo: Paula Lobo Patricia Hoffbauer takes this thing we call dance into other realms; she pushes the limits on how we see performance. Para-Dice (Stage 2), at Danspace Project (November 21-23) created and directed by Hoffbauer, was made in collaboration with an unconventional cast of individuals: George Emilio Sanchez, Peter Richards, Peggy Gould, Elisa Osborne, Tom Rawe, Alyssa Alpine and Laura Gilbert. Video designer Peter Richards also helps to connect the many dots. Each held their own, gave light to the overarching themes (racism, colonialism, perception, etc.), and pulled the many parts together. This mixed-media, mixed-format journey, guided by the very funny narrator/”interlocutor” Hoffbauer, layers popular culture, the body esthetic, politics and a host of other questionable concepts with what is or isn’t “paradise.” There is call-and-response between Hoffbauer and the audience; show-and-tell between Hoffbauer and the cast; lessons on cultural appropriation, and projections from films covering decades, genres and obscure places. The serious melds with the humorous when for instance, on the screen we see and hear Brazilian singer Wilson Simonal and learn that he connects America to Brazil for Hoffbauer. At the same time, on stage, the brazen Sanchez takes a model’s walk, dressed in high heels and a flimsy see-through dress. There is so much to see and not enough time to set your laurels on all that Hoffbauer throws at us, so, we can take what we want.
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