Finding the Light: Susan Marshall @ BAC

On Friday I saw Susan Marshall & Company's Frame Dances and Adamantine at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. I hadn't seen anything by her since I was blown away by her work in Philip Glass's Les enfants terribles back in 1997. The evening did not disappoint. Their use of very simple visual elements -- lighting instruments as props, fabric, shadows, live instrumentalists -- coupled with virtuosic movement was infinitely more satisfying than any big-budget mishigas I've seen lately at an opera house. NYCO, ahem, please take note.

The pieces also brought up the idea of the theatrical gimmick: littered with ideas that could either be called 'brilliant' or 'cute,' most of her dance segments capitalized on quick ideas to create such striking images that you could watch them over and over.  Body of Water, the sinewy-smooth frame dance duet involving what looked like a bathtub of milk, was one of these.  The more playful Green, Green Grass, however, involved a familial kaleidoscope of amused movers sliding and crawling through a small grassy square.  It was whimsical and fun and touching, but in the same way that a really great GAP commercial is.  I say this not to dismiss it (there is a lot of great art on TV these days); I'm just wondering, when does a gimmick fizzle? If a gimmick is a springboard for art, the content is the fuel, and the virtuosity is the sparkle.  Susan Marshall & Company succeeds when they concentrate all three.