If you think you know every way two people can intertwine their bodies – think again. Chris Elam’s “Throw People,” playing through Sunday at the Brooklyn Lyceum, 227 Fourth Avenue, employs what seems to be an endless array of interpersonal movement. Dancers interlock arms and legs, make loopholes that are both literal and figurative, lunge into walking carousels, diving boards, and become swings, as well as expressing personified versions of raw gut emotion.

“Throw People” was developed under an artist-in-residence grant from the Joyce Theater. This work first premiered in May at Performance Space 122 with live music by composer Andy Tierstein and evocative lighting by Stacey Boggs. An enthusiastic and positive response led to a second run here in Brooklyn.

The physical beauty of the dancers and their extensive training were in themselves a good enough reason to see a performance. Fortunately there is much more.

The piece consists of two parts. First comes “Land Flat,” a quartet for women dancers who start out perched in the corner like four birds about to take flight. With their arms winged back and on the verge of a flutter, they take off, at first dancing in unison, but eventually swirling around until they discover one another. The power of being part of a foursome leads to some beautiful movement, including instances when they break into counterpoint, where two dancers on the floor spiral and lunge in sequence with the two standing women.

In addition to all the group work, each performer has her own story to tell; the fact that the audience can see their facial expressions keeps the piece charged with human emotion. The action transpiring between them seems to mean any number of things: see what you come up with.

Part two is the companion piece, “Throw People.” This is where the scenario warms up, and the two lead men get into some pretty hairy moments. One second they are ensnarled in a tug of war; the very next we see one of them hanging upside down in his partner’s arms, moaning like a monkey. Just moments later they are leaning on one another and entwined in a circling form that resembles a carousel. The ride is brief, though, and the next thing you know one dancer is on a mountain climbing expedition on his counterpart’s shoulders. Adding to the intrigue, a third party wanders on stage an starts nosing around. Humor. Grief. Love. A light touch followed by impact of epic proportions. You get it all here, though often the meaning is left up to the viewer.
Perhaps throwing his viewers for a loop each time they think they can figure it all out is part of Chris Elam’s style. The gifted Brown University graduate mixes high concept with raw emotions in combinations that range from startling to just plain funny.

Unlike many other contemporary choreographers, Elam did not study classical dance as a youngster. Instead he underwent six years of Laban Movement Analysis – a system based on the theories of Rudolph Laban — where students learn to discover their own form of movement using components such as space, weight, time and flow. As an undergraduate at Brown, Elam started out as a public policy major, but, lo and behold, the day came during sophomore year when he realized he needed to take what he loved the most and run with it.

Since graduating in 1998, Elam has spent a great deal of time traveling and studying the dance traditions of other cultures, including Turkey, Brazil, Cuba and the Netherlands. But, by far, the nation that influenced him the most was Indonesia. There he immersed himself in an 8-month intensive course of traditional Balinese dance, and the experience opened the door to an entirely new level of movement. “In Balinese dance,” he says, “what’s interesting is the way movement transforms people. The dancers literally embody and become other things while they are on stage.” Thus, a king might morph into a dog, or a bird, all while performing to traditional music.

Elam’s next work, set to start development this fall, will be developed under the auspices of New York University’s Skirball Performing Arts Center.

A digital motion sample that Elam’s company has created in tandem with Apple Computers is a recent departure. Clips from the project, in addition to snippets of live interviews with Chris Elam, can be found at his company Web site, www.misnomer.org.

Though there is no plot behind “Throw People,” plenty of discoveries and truths are being told. “Each person has a story to tell,” says Elam, “and we see them live it. The piece works with intimacy and the multiplicity of how people relate to one another.” He says it’s an attempt to communicate the importance of human effort, and to let the audience see the earnest struggle between people as they go about trying to achieve their ends. He emphasizes that ultimately it is the human effort that counts; it is more important than actual achievement.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2006