Flash Review 2, 8-21: Back for Seconds Deli Dances, Part Two By Chris Dohse Copyright 2000 Chris Dohse What a remarkable thing was the day-long marathon finale of this year's "Deli Dances in Times Square." Everything I love about the hodgepodge plurality of voices known as "Downtown Dance" was in abundance; some of the things I hate about it were too. When they're bad, these dances can be jejune, self-indulgent, gimmicky, precocious, flaccidly misfired. But like the little girl with the little curl, when they're good, they're gorgeous. The marathon started last Friday at lunchtime. Approximately 30 choreographers strutted their stuff in Chashama's space on 42nd Street before the end of the night. First, though, I need to rave about a piece seen earlier in the series. Paul Langland has a power onstage that is so compelling, I'd wait in line to watch him read the yellow pages. In a solo, "Heat," performed Tuesday the 15th, Langland entered a sequence of energy states that asked "What is passion? What is maleness?" with humor and humility. Langland sculpted an unknowable ground of creativity with its own symbols, its own delight, its own enchantment.

Photo credit: Anja Hitzenberger