What Are You, Chicken?

If you're among the contingent of otherwise-venturesome art junkies in the area who keep telling themselves they really should see more modern dance, then Margaret Jenkins Dance Company may be just the induction you've been looking for. (We know, we know — dance shows have no beer or jujubes, and all those muscular bodies just remind you that you need to go to the gym, and how the hell do the people next to you know that trio was really about post-Chernobyl social breakdown? And so on.) We say, buck up. Equal parts brain, heart, and guts, MJDC is known for passionate, perceptive dancing that stays with you long after the curtain closes and interpretive chatter fades. The Jenkins company's latest project, Other Suns, emanates from the choreographer’s recent trips to China and investigates the apt motifs of symmetry and asymmetry, balance and brokenness, in both aesthetics and current events: Think melting planet, political power grabs, economic exploitation, and other such pleasantries. Part one of a new trilogy, Other Suns strikes a balance between wordcraft by poet and writer Michael Palmer, an elaborate stage environment by local favorite Alexander V. Nichols, and indomitable dancing that just may make you a convert.
Dec. 6-8, 8 p.m.; Sun., Dec. 9, 7 p.m., 2007