The dancers of Khecari picked as good a time as any to get off the grid. Last Thursday, two days after the presidential campaign came to an end, I made my way to Indian Boundary Park Cultural Center in Rogers Park for a pseudo-getaway called The Retreat. Upon arrival, I was asked to relinquish my phone for safekeeping and put my mind to rest for at least a few hours. I was assigned a “ranger” who’d help guide me throughout the night. I was given a mug, a notepad and a pencil and instructed to doodle, grab a cup of tea, lounge. The lights were dim, the music soft—the idea here was to get comfy.
This is to say nothing of the actual movement, developed from an improvised “duet investigation” of Meyer and Antonick’s called Orders From the Horse. But the dancing comes across, perhaps intentionally so, as more of an afterthought than a focal point. Meyer and Antonick are typically steady and lucid in their pacing; when Meyer’s grows quicker, dancer Chih-Hsien Lin wraps him in a tarp, as if to say “slow down.” The few choreographed sections draw the audience even further into what apears to be a state of hypnosis, the ensemble sliding and rippling across the floor like pools of water. But all the while you’re given the freedom to do as you please.
Sat 11/19, 8 PM Indian Boundary Park Cultural Center 2500 W. Lunt 773-764-0338khecari.org $10-$270 Sold out
