Imitation is the Best Form of Reality

"The Invention of Minus One" is a rare performance that does not deserve to be called anything as direct as "weird." Choreographer Jonah Bokaer studied and experimented with motion-capture for a year, graduating with a three-person show following his own 10- minute solo "False Start." Mechanical turns of the body and repetition of banal flips of a coin or sweeps of a broom become human nature in what might be his interpretation of a photography studio.

Motion-capture technology is used in movies to copy the action of a live person and feed it to a computer for digital re-creation. Bokaer uses this method to choreograph live persons, so that the dancers are an imitation of an imitation of themselves. Their personalities are not shown in their individuality or quirks. Rather, movements are distilled to their purest forms and intentions. When woman in charge Banu Ogan snaps Polaroids of the only man, Rashaun Mitchell, the pictures fall to the ground. Perhaps the face in the image in not important. The action of taking pictures fills up the time it would take to bend down and pick them up. An androgen, played by Holley Farmer, later picks up the pieces. While Ogan and Mitchell are interacting on the right, Farmer completes the composition on stage by staying in a corner, keeping herself busy organizing a wardrobe or spinning in place.

Bokaer forges the illusion that living and moving are always purposeful (even when obsessive-compulsive) and beautiful. The performers seem to think too robotically to look normal, but in action they capture what we all do, how we all act, and the way we all fiddle tour thumbs or shakes our legs unconsciously. These dancers move to their own music- composer Christian Marclay's camera noises that errupt whenever Ogan moves a certain way or whenever Bokaer wanted it.

Simple but non-sensical costumes designed by Isaac Mizrahi reflect the almost human but still programmed aesthetic of "Minus One." Ogan's silver tights paired with a beaded and sequined stiff top remind one of the innocent fun of a child in picking costumes while really being a sleek, shiny machine. Mitchell wears an 80's style military jacket-complete with epaulettes, enforcing the idea that "The Invention of Minus One" is not about water represented by turquoise chiffon or about the earth, symbolized in brown linen. It is about people, about our habits, about supposed trivial actions that are actually an inherent part of who we are.