February 18, 2005
LARRY KEIGWIN
My first glimpse of Larry Keigwin was in a piece whose title and time I no longer remember. What did register was a dark-haired, slightly built but sinewy male who tore through the dance with spendthrift abandon and a dazzling technique. The choreographer might have been Mark Dendy. The wildness of the solo rules out the cooler art of John Jasperse and Ben Munisteri, with whom Mr. Keigwin has also performed. Then came his eerie portrayal of a vulpine Nijinsky in Mr. Dendy's "Dream Analysis," and the dance, yearning and pyrotechnical, that he created and performed in Mr. Dendy's "I'm Going to My Room to Be Cool Now, and I Don't Want to Be Disturbed." Today, Mr. Keigwin and his choreography seem to be everywhere, in programs by Keigwin + Company and in his witty burlesque-style Keigwin Kabaret. So it is no surprise that he is opening the five-week 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Project festival at the Duke on 42nd Street. Mr. Keigwin injects a revivifying dose of blithe high spirits into an often rather solemn art. His festival program includes the New York premiere of "Natural Selection" (above with Mr. Keigwin and Nicole Wolcott) and his signature "Mattress Suite," a duet whose blend of wry humor and the immense sadness of dashed hope is typical of Mr. Keigwin's humane approach to dance.
Jennifer Dunning
THE NEW YORK TIMES
February 18, 2005