I didn't stay late enough at the Works on Thursday night to have to face the crushing crowds, so I missed Gang Gang Dance. But if you exhausted yourself then and opted to rest up last night, you missed out on a fantastic collaboration between Janet Pants (AKA Jane Paik, who, incidentally, was my Pilates instructor all summer) and Explode Into Colors. It was a nice segue from earlier in the evening, when Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People gave an unexpectedly fun (dry humping and underwear dance party!) performance at the Winningstad. Pants is known as a "punk rock" modern dancer, more accustomed to music venues than fine arts audiences, though judging by the crowd most of the people in attendance last night were far more familiar with the staff at Holocene than, say, the Armory. The performance married recorded narration with Pants' (joined for one piece by Explode's Heather Treadway) frenetic dancing, Chris Hackett's video work, and Exlode's dark dance music. The overall show was captivating, though some of the narrated pieces (specifically, the male speaker's—Hackett?) were a little too NPR-y and broke up the lovely flow of overall weirdness.
Total unrelated side note: If you have not checked out the international snacks in the vending machine on the second floor, you need to. We got a bag of "Captain Bawang Cornick" last night, which are like the Philippines' far superior answer to CornNuts, and they are well worth $1.50.
