Fringe, Reviewed: The Back Door
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
A hip-hop and ballet mix with dark cabaret-like aesthetics and electroclash-derived tunes to transform a Graduate Hospital warehouse into a sexually-charged extravaganza that is far bigger than the sum of its parts.
[ dance ]
The Back Door by Jasmine Zieroff
ATTENDED: Fri., Sept. 5, p.m.; closes Sat., Sept. 20
WE THINK: Dance performances like The Back Door can be a real grab bag — anything that starts this late, for which the erotic physicality is the main selling point, is really meant for a certain type of viewer that can appreciate spectacles without having to know exactly what’s going on at any given moment.
In this respect, “The Back Door” is extremely pleasing. Created by Jasmine Zieroff, who co-conceived 2012’s erotic crowdpleaser RUB, The Back Door is a gatling gun of intense stimuli; hip-hop and ballet mix with dark cabaret-like aesthetics and electroclash-derived tunes to transform a Graduate Hospital warehouse into a sexually-charged extravaganza that is far bigger than the sum of its parts. Subtle traces of humor, redemption, and introspection color the performances (segmented by two intermissions) without weaving much of a cohesive narrative — but, again, that’s not really the point.
The point is really the display of performative and physical mastery by the six dancers, most of whom also perform in Brian Sanders’ JUNK ensemble. Sanders, for his part, skulks within and throughout the performance whilst shrouded in a white robe and wielding a staff with a classic-style microphone on top; his presence is bizarrely calming, grounding this performance in some form of reality.
Although a number of bewildered participants left at the first sign of nudity, The Back Door isn’t really all that lewd. Titillating? For sure. But so long as you know not to twist your mind around everything you see (and trust me, you’ll miss something amidst the strobing, dry-humping, and penis puppets masterfully sparring), you’ll likely be entranced by its subversive non-logic.
