ON THE FRINGE: Dancing Dead

All the heavy stuff of death is leavened delightfully by this JUNK cast, zombified but as acrobatic and limber as ever.

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ON THE FRINGE: Dancing Dead

POSTED: Sunday, September 11, 2011, 9:00 AM

Bill Hebert

There's something about seeing a disheveled, hunched-over, makeup-aged Brian Sanders being hoisted up in the air by a company of undead friends while "Bridge Over Troubled Water" plays in the background that makes me weepy. And for good reason: Sanders' Dancing Dead is a tribute, of sorts, to those in the choreographer's life who've recently passed. (More on that here.) But all the heavy stuff of death is leavened delightfully by this JUNK cast, zombified but as acrobatic and limber as ever, throwing themselves onto the graveyard floor and swinging with the greatest of ease from suspended ropes in the appropriately dingy sub-basement of 444 Lofts. The fact that Sanders here plays a groundskeeper who's only partly in on the Thriller-y action means we don't get to see him dance as much as we'd like (read: all the time), and pretty much every seat in the venue could be argued as obstructed-view, but JUNK's funky blend of quirk and elegance more than makes up for any minor quibbles. As far as I'm concerned, it's his best work yet.

But all the heavy stuff of death is leavened delightfully by this JUNK cast, zombified but as acrobatic and limber as ever, throwing themselves onto the graveyard floor and swinging with the greatest of ease from suspended ropes in the appropriately dingy sub-basement of 444 Lofts.

The fact that Sanders here plays a groundskeeper who's only partly in on the Thriller-y action means we don't get to see him dance as much as we'd like (read: all the time), and pretty much every seat in the venue could be argued as obstructed-view, but JUNK's funky blend of quirk and elegance more than makes up for any minor quibbles. As far as I'm concerned, it's his best work yet.

Through Sept. 17, $25, Sub-Basement at 444 Lofts, 444 N. Fourth St., MORE INFO HERE.

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