American Realness

300 Words on Realness: WONDER

image: Ian Douglas

300 Words on Realness: WONDER

by Lydia Mokdessi
Published on: January 14, 2014

In WONDER, Boulé strides out in the nude, arms outstretched behind her with rigid hands, a facsimile of open-mouthed joy plastered to her face. She step-touches animatedly in front of and behind us and soars off, head tilting as she arcs like a bird. Having retrieved her blue jersey separates, she changes gears and begins an expansive dance, accompanied by an autobiographical recording detailing her trajectory as a young dancer and high-achieving student. She references her “genetically-instilled work ethic” and “pavlov response to good.”

Her voice is replaced by a male one, who asks a rapid fire series of questions (would you like more potato chips? more love? more gun control?) to which she yells her reply (it’s always YEAH!). She puts on a mermaid-ish gown, blue wig, and googly-eye glasses and sings uninhibitedly to Evelyn Champagne King’s “Love Come Down” before throwing herself onto her back and inching along heels first, her dress riding up to her chest and later being stuffed into her tights. She revolves a hula hoop around her waist through a series of airborne tricks, earning woops of support. We’ve become her cheer squad. We’re forgiving when she drops the hoop. We wonder if there’s an undertone of manipulation in the taped affirmations (great job! wow! what I like about you is…) and who she is trying to please.

Back to tights and bra, she begins a series of metamorphosing standing and kneeling postures, some that reach stillness and some that keep a quivering hand or nodding head. She works like this around the circle, meeting the eyes of each witness. This practice has an authentic movement feel to it, but with visual consciousness. Though I would have been more than happy to watch her all day, the faces of the audience members are maybe the most fascinating part; some people gaze back fondly, some are stone-faced, and a few look completely terrified. We are pulled into an interaction that is not verbal and not intellectual, and that liveness / openness can feel seductive or occult.

image: Ian Douglas